Humans gasped behind me.

  I watched Fyga take off into the tent city. I wasn’t sure what she was planning, but I hoped it was something to help.

  It didn’t take long for the guards to run off as well. I had a feeling they were going to go get the mayor and inform him of what I’d just said. Hopefully, he’d be smart enough to know that I’d never surrender just like that, but that also meant that the Touched might know that as well.

  There was no such thing as surrender between the Touched and the Bokor. Bokor saw the Touched as a bomb waiting to go off and the Touched saw the Bokor as a knife at their throat. But maybe this Touched didn’t know that I’d been a Potential. Then again, I was traveling with a Bokor, but so was Fyga.

  “It’s just you and me out here now!” I looked around. The only movement that I saw was from the purple eyed monsters, most of which had a patch of faintly glowing purple where the magic inside them was healing the Zombie’s body. It’s what made Zombies so durable and difficult for a regular Human to kill.

  My eyes honed in on a Zombie that didn’t feel like a Zombie. In fact, my Zombie sensing was telling me that there wasn’t a Zombie where my eyes could see one.

  “Clever.” I folded my arms in front of me. “Disguising yourself as a Zombie.” I’d have to remember that trick if I made it out of here alive. Though I hoped I’d never be in a position where I was on the other side of the fence. The only place I could think of it being useful would be to get close to the Touched and they’d be able to spot me just like I had this woman.

  “I was wondering how long it would take you to spot me.” The brown-haired woman straightened. She strutted closer to the gate.

  The Touched woman was almost as tall as I was, over six feet-tall, which was gigantic for a Human woman. She was also very slender, which I wouldn’t have expected from someone wearing fisherman’s clothes. Her glowing purple eyes also told me that she probably wasn't the one in charge. The ones chasing Fyga had blue eyes and the one posing as a guard had died too easily to be an agent.

  “I was looking for your boss.” I scanned the Zombies again, but none of them had blue eyes. I looked back at her. “But I guess, you’ll have to do.” I tried to smile, but the disgust that washed over her face told me that I’d failed. “I’m Byler.”

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  “I know who you are, Byler of Bran.” The woman smirked. “Didn’t know that we were watching you?”

  “That means you know more about me than I know about you.” I swallowed. This was already feeling like a bad idea.

  “I’d like to keep it that way.” The Touched snapped her fingers and one of the male Zombies knelt down on all fours so she could sit on his back. She crossed her legs. “So. You stand down and we let you walk away.”

  “What about...?”

  “They stay.” She cut me off. “This deal is only good for you, that fake Bokor, and whatever the blonde is.”

  I shook my head. “We have a seven-year-old boy with us.” I glared at her. “And Fyga.”

  “You can have the boy.” She grinned. “In fact, you could take all of the children. They never ascend and don’t live long as a minion.” She patted the head of one of the Zombies standing next to her. “And you’ll stay out of our way if you have to protect a nursery.”

  “If you’re going to give us the kids, I’m going to need more than just Fyga.” I tried thinking about how many people I could justify demanding.

  “You get the Bokor and the blonde.” She shook her head. “Because giving them to you saves me from having to raise them until they’ll turn.” Her eyes narrowed. “The traitor comes with us.”

  “You can’t expect...!”

  “I can and I will.” The Touched waved her arms at the Zombies around her. “Not even a real Bokor would be deluded into thinking that they could survive a fraction of what I have. The only reason why we’re talking is because we have a mutual enemy and I’d rather not lose any more resources taking my prize.” She looked at the body of the blue eyed Touched.

  “You didn’t show up with this army.” I tried to look around without making it seem obvious. I’d fired off that beacon long enough ago that Val and Eveth should have been able to run here from the other side of the city. But neither of them had shown up yet. “And I’ve never heard of that cloud before.”

  “It’s never been used before.” The Touched smiled as she gestured at the Zombies. “Even with your interference, I think it could be called a success!”

  “I don’t know.” I smirked. “Blowing up half the city just because it came into contact with a little fire doesn’t sound like a safe tool.”

  “You just got lucky.” She glared at me. “If your fireball hadn’t hit the barrel of concentrated Zombie blood, it never would have ignited.”

  “Concentrated…” I swallowed. Zombie blood was already highly flammable, but to concentrate it was just asking for trouble. “How..?”

  “I’m not going to tell you any more about how it works.” She sighed. “Do we have a deal or not?”

  “I can’t accept anything until I talk to my companions.” There was no way we were taking that deal, but I’d at least bought some time. If she agreed to wait until Val and Eveth showed up so I could talk to them, that would be even more time that we’d have.

  She never had time to respond, because there was a loud explosion behind me.

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