Willy said, “You really want me to come?”
She sighed. “Yeah, kid. ‘Course.” Then she walked away without another word.
Willy and I exchanged a look, and I could see how excited he was. Even though I didn’t particularly want to go somewhere like that, I didn’t want to make him second-guess himself or lose that excitement in his eyes—he deserved a little fun, especially after his recent treatment—so I gave him a small smile and a nod.
He pulled his knit cap down, trying to hide his grin before he rushed away to do some more chores before we docked.
I stayed glued to the rail—all my chores were done for the day, and I needed to stay out of the way while the aeronauts did a ton of complicated things I didn’t understand to the ropes, sails, and rudders so we could land.
I watched the island get closer and closer, surprised to see so much gray and brown. For some reason, I’d expected greenery—I supposed that was how I pictured an island. But this place looked like a giant rock just jutted up out of the water at random. I didn’t think there was a single place to grow crops. It was cliffy and filled with so much stone, I could feel the magic inside of me reacting to it, even from here.
The stoney ground wasn’t of the magical variety—so no fluxstones formed naturally there, which made sense since they only came from Sunada—but there was enough rock to make my jaw tense.
I hadn’t had the opportunity to use my magic for weeks, and I’d never gone this long without expelling it. My body was a little on edge. I needed to find a stone to charge and soon.
Maybe when we left the ship, I could find a place to release some of my magic into the stone ground there. There was certainly enough of it.
If I charged a regular stone, all I could make it do was explode, or the energy I filled it with would dissipate over time. No one else would be able to use it, not the way people used fluxstones. As far as I knew, fluxstones were the only type in the entire world that could absorb my magicandrelease it as powerable energy.
That was what’d made Sunada such a rich kingdom. Fluxstones were found there and only there. Sunada was the reason our world had power, and they didn’t let the other kingdoms forget it.
OnThe Black Wraith, there were a bunch of uncharged fluxstones. I could feel them. Every day that passed, more and more stones lost their energy and called to me, like an itch under my skin that I wanted to scratch so, so, so badly.
Every time one of Reaper’s prosthetic fluxstones lost power, every part of me wanted to reach down and recharge it. Honestly, it was difficult to be near him when I could feel them, but his company was worth the discomfort.
Nearly every night this week, I almost broke into the safe where they were kept so I could charge them. But the risk of being found out was far too great. I was the only new person on the ship, so of course they’d assume I’d done it, and I couldn’t let them find out I was a fluxweaver.
No one could know.
Ever.
Not after what’d happened the last time a friend of mine found out. I’d met Reuben Campbell at a pub, and for a few weeks, I’d thought there might be something there, that he might like me the way I was beginning to like him.
But then he’d caught me using my magic, and everything changed.
Reuben had seemed… scared of me. Like I was acid that he was terrified to touch.
And then the demands started.
He’d wanted me to power every stone he and his family owned, which I didn’t actually mind doing at all. I did mind, however, having it demanded of me while the man sneered and turned his nose up at me. Reuben had acted like I was his personal servant, only there to serve him anytime he wanted.
And I’d also minded when he’d started throwing out casual threats.
“What would happen if someone told one of the king’s guard?”
“Do you think they’d plug you in?”
“Can you imagine how horrible it is living in a waking coma?”
“What would you do if I… let slip what you are?”
He’d gone from a man I wanted to date to my worst nightmare.
After three months of letting him force me to do his bidding, exhausting me and making me constantly check over my shoulder, my sister, Ethan, and Master Redman had intervened.
I still didn’t know how they’d gotten him to back off—they wouldn’t tell me no matter how many times I’d asked—but I’d appreciated it more than they knew.
Reuben hadn’t been the first person to do that to me, and I was sure he wouldn’t be the last.
