“I just got bit again!”

  Theo hadn’t stopped complaining. Which made the entire trek into the woods feel longer. Though I did wonder why the mosquitoes were attracted to him. I hadn’t been bit once since I’d ascended and Master Bran had always scoffed when I’d mentioned bugs before.

  “If you don't stop complaining then you're going to get bit by more than just mosquitoes!” Fyga rubbed her palm over the pommel of her sword.

  Theo glared at her. “Why is it always violence with you?”

  The icy woman shrugged. “Why is it always complaining with you?”

  Theo clenched his fist, then turned to me. “How long are we going to be out here?”

  I looked up at the sky. It had been a few hours and traipsing around in the woods wasn't getting us anywhere. We had a couple more hours until the end of the day and it started getting dark. If I had still been human, then walking around in the dark would have been difficult , but now that I had night vision, a nighttime trek wouldn’t result in us getting lost. Even if I was still able to see well, It would have been nice to be able to update Val on our progress, though if one of us ran into trouble, then we could always shoot an explosion of raw magic into the sky.

  Communication was something that even the Bokor struggled with. Despite having magic, almost everything they did with that power was focused on combating Zombies. I began wondering how much better things might be if there was a way for us to communicate using our magic instead of using flares, but that was something I was going to have to ask Master James when I saw him in Port Town.

  “I asked you a question!” Theo grabbed my arm.

  The portly man had already begun to lose some of his belly and his arms were getting thicker. While there weren’t a lot of overweight humans due to the hard life they lived, the magic within the Ascended did more than just grant us magic. It enhanced our bodies to the point that we were in peak physical condition. I doubted that someone who had been so lazy as a human would ever condition his body, but his metabolism would make it difficult for him to regain his belly.

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  The entitled man squeaked as I swatted his hand away. “I’m not going to answer the same question over and over again.”

  The blonde man stared at me as I walked away. Fyga and I would have been able to cover more ground without him, but I knew that he would have caused more problems for Val if we’d left him back at the camp. So while he wasn’t being helpful, he was causing the least amount of problems for the group by being with us.

  I started to question agreeing to keep him alive, while Max, my original partner, had been a burden fighting zombies, he had been invaluable when it came to dealing with people. Judging by how little everyone liked him, I doubted Theo was going to do anything other than make even more trouble. The Bokor teaching about Touched flooded my mind, I could follow those rules right now. Because if someone as vile as Theo could become useful to the Bokor, then there was hope.

  This was my best chance at turning the self-absorbed man into something good, so I started trying to think of ways for him to help us out, but nothing came to mind.

  “You should let me kill him.” Fyga seemed to be able to tell what I was thinking about.

  I glanced behind us at the blonde man before looking back at my female companion. “He’s not a lost cause, I’m sure that he’ll-”

  “Betray you again?” Fyga shook her head. “If you want to keep him alive, fine. But I’ve been around his type a lot. There’s no changing him to think about anyone but himself, which means eventually, you’re going to wake up with his sword in your back.” She touched the pommel of her confiscated sword. “I could take him deeper into the woods. There’s lots of accidents that can kill someone out here.”

  “We’re not doing that.” I shook my head. “He’s not that bad.”

  “He is.” Fyga patted my cheek. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

  I watched her walk away. There was something in her tone that told me that if I ever left Theo alone with her, there was a good chance he wouldn’t survive.

  It was just one more thing that I had to worry about.

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