A crossbow bolt zipped past my ear.

I turned to the wall and saw Darren reloading his weapon. The wrangler wasn’t content to let the infection kill us. He wanted to make sure we were dead.

I braced myself to dodge but knew it wouldn’t do much good. I was getting weaker and there wasn’t anywhere to hide. Eventually, he would hit me.

“Stop!” The mayor ordered.

Darren had the crossbow sighted at me. I tensed because the look on his face told me that he wasn’t going to lower it.

“I said stop!” The mayor pulled the crossbow down before it could fire.

“They aren’t dead,” Darren pulled the weapon away. “We can’t leave them like this.”

“They’ve both been bit.” The mayor gestured at us, “They’re as good as dead.”

Darren started to sight the crossbow again. This time the mayor tried to pull it out of his hands.

“Son, I’m not going to tell you again.” The mayor gave one final yank and pulled the crossbow out of Darren’s hands.

“You’re just going to leave them?” Darren insisted, “What if more show up?”

“Then we delay them.” The mayor passed the crossbow to a guard, “Spending a few hours with those things,” he spat as he said ‘things’, “will be easier to explain than an arrow sticking out of one of their own.” He glared at his son. “Unless you want to go in there and pull it out?”

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Darren was upset, but he shook his head. I tried to smile but didn’t have the strength. At least we had a chance now.

I watched the mayor walk off and most of the guards followed him. Darren glared at us for a few minutes but eventually got bored of waiting for us to die and stormed off.

Once we were free of prying eyes, I began digging in my pocket. Val had sank to her knees and was running her fingers through her sister’s hair. Tears were still streaming down her cheeks.

“I don’t suppose you have an antidote for the bite?” She blinked back the tears.

I pulled out two heart stones from my pocket but hesitated. What I was about to do could earn me execution back on the island. Making the transition to Bokor without permission was almost always rewarded with execution, because it was very dangerous without aid, and also because the council had very strict rules about who could receive this power. By making the transition, there would at least be an opportunity to plead my case before the council. I hoped they would understand why I did what I was about to do. It was that or death, and I wasn’t ready to die yet.

The other heartstone in my hand felt warmer. Giving a stone to Val could be considered treason. She was a human with no training. She had not gone through the conditioning that apprentices received, but looking at her holding her sister, knowing that she had become a wrangler to protect her people, the very core duty of a Bokor, I knew that she had paid for the chance to try.

I held out a stone in my hand, “Do you trust me?”

She eyed the stone in my hand, “Isn’t that a gem like you have in your sword?”

I nodded, “Sort of.” I took a deep breath. I was running out of time, “We have to do this fast.” I swallowed. From everything that I had learned about her so far, she was not going to like my question. I thought about just telling her it would save her from the infection, but that was a lie. The transition could kill her faster than the bite. Besides, she deserved to know upfront what I was offering her.

“Do you want to be a Bokor?”