I finished before Eve found us.

  The younger blonde looked like she’d been running. It took a lot more effort for us to sweat and her ponytail was stuck to her neck. She was also breathing hard, which meant she’d been running hard. The flare that Val had fired was meant to signal that the beach was under attack and that the other Touched needed to get back to camp as fast as we could.

  “Did you finish?” Eve looked from Val to me, then her eyes stopped on Fyga. “Is she okay?”

  “She’ll be fine.” Val nodded at me. “But we need you to take her and keep an eye on things while I head over to the other side of the island with Byler.”

  “What did you find?” She took the smaller woman from me.

  Eveth was the youngest of the four of us and also the thinnest. Val and I had a lot more muscle due to our training and Fyga was about the same size, just six inches shorter. The height made Eveth look weaker than she was, but the diamond-eyed blonde had no trouble taking the unconscious woman from me.

  “There’s a ship on the other side of the island that I’m hoping is still there.” Val looked at the camp. “Tell them that we’re on Bokor business and if they get too persistent, tell them that we’re investigating a cave to see if it’s safe to move everyone to.”

  “What about?” Eveth nodded at the burning city to the west.

  “Shoot a flare if you see boats heading this way, but it’s going to take us a while to get back.” Val looked at Fyga. “Hopefully, she wakes up before then, but until she does, you don’t need to leave her in the camp.”

  The Bokor looked towards the camp and saw the burly brown-haired man standing at the fence with his arms crossed.

  “If Carl gives you any trouble…” She looked at me. “You might need to make an example out of him.”

  “We’re not killing-”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Better to kill one, than lose them all.” Val pinched her eyebrows and groaned. “I can’t believe I just said that. I sound just like him.”

  I knew that the him she was referring to was the mayor who had executed her parents and sister in the name of keeping the peace, then once their corpses had turned into Zombies, he’d sold the Zombies to the Bokor. It was a terrible loophole and one that I’d told Master James about. I could only hope that he’d use her story as proof of why the bounty program needed an overhaul.

  “I can handle a bully.” Eveth cradled the back of Fyga’s head as she leaned the unconscious woman backwards. “Is she going to be okay?”

  “It’s a nerve poison.” I tried to remember what the Captain had said about it, but that was about all I could remember. “We’re resilient, so her body will burn it out. Just have to wait until that happens.”

  Eveth looked over the dark-haired woman one more time, then pulled her close. She turned to Val. “How long are you going to be gone?”

  The older ginger looked at me. “If everything goes well. Until tonight. If not, a lot longer.”

  “We need to hurry.” I glanced down the beach where Carl was still glaring at us. “I found Captain Jace. He seems like he’s a good person and he has administrative experience.”

  “Who?” Eveth scrunched her brow.

  “The stinky one-legged, one-eyed crazy guy we met at the docks in Port Reggo.”

  “Oh…” Her nose wrinkled. “Really?”

  “He doesn’t smell that bad.” I lowered my voice. He had walked into the water to wash, but I had my doubts on how clean that was going to make him.

  “I’ll have Dame Isough bath him if he does.” Eveth smirked. “Might be fun to watch her do that anyway.”

  I turned to Val. “Are you sure she can do this?”

  The Bokor shrugged. “I need to be there and you have the papers. Fyga’s out, so she’s all we’ve got.”

  Eveth looked down at her feet, which she couldn’t see because of the woman she was holding.

  Val walked behind the other woman and wrapped her arms around the blonde’s shoulders. “But even if she wasn't our only option, I think she’ll do fine.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I just smiled and nodded my head. I looked to the west, then back at Val.

  “You ready?”

  The Bokor uncurled her arms from around Eveth. “Yeah.”

  We took off in a dead sprint. I hoped we came back with good news, but the way my stomach was twisting felt like that was a mere fantasy.

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