"Trader's coming," Beetle said, pulling me sharply from my daze.

My shoulders shot back as I heard a carriage approach. I glanced sideways and saw it pull to a stop at the far end of the line.

Less than a year after Anthony was sold, I was. It was the only way Mom could keep the house. I could only pray she was still okay. My sale set her up well and maybe once she realized her children were gone, her mania about us would disappear. A small part of me wished that she was out there, looking for us. The logical part of me knew that I would have to be the one to find Anthony. I would be the one to put our family back together—no one was going to do that for us.

The door of the carriage opened and a tall gentleman wearing a Slate tunic and dark brown bracers on his wrists exited. A huge magestone sat nestled against his chest, glowing a bright Slate blue.

He was a healer.

"Peace!" one of the older foremen greeted, calling out loudly and gesturing down the row of dewloi proudly like an Oma showing off her grandchildren. My eyes locked onto his magestone.

Every magestone glowed one of three colors depending on who was wearing it. A grayish blue indicated that the person had the capacity for healing. This overlord had a high capacity for healing if the brightness of the stone had any indication. Even though I was a human, I knew that if I touched a magestone, it would glow Slate. Slates were the rarest capacity.

Some stones glowed a Sage green. Sages could tell if someone was lying or telling the truth. Powerful Sages could sometimes pull the truth from someone's mind. Most overlords and humans with capacity were Sages. The Nomar family loved putting Sages as politicians and judges—their ability to read the human mind was instrumental. Other stones burned a bright red Oxblood. Oxblood were the most dangerous and second most common mages. Oxblood could control fire, which made them ideal for soldiering.

I couldn't tell if the person making a trade was a human with capacity or an overlord, but it was most likely an overlord. This would increase my number to three. He seemed to radiate with power—I prayed that he wasn't buying. Maybe the dewloi weren't joking when they said that you could smell the power on them. All I could smell was unwashed bodies and mud.

The overlord then pulled someone from the carriage. It looked like a young boy, maybe around seven. He had a hood yanked over his head and pooled at his shoulders. The overlord yanked him forward, essentially tossing him to one of the foremen. The foremen handed him a sack of money and he got back into his carriage. Just like that, the trade was done.

I could feel Beetle slump next to me. The foremen began marching the little boy down the line toward us. I glanced at the youngest boy next to me. He was maybe eight or so. This new boy would be the new youngest.

They continued marching the boy down, who was tripping over his own feet—the tunic he was wearing was far too long for him. Finally, they tossed him down in front of us. Beetle and I traded a confused glance. Were they expecting us to raise the kid?

One of the foremen took the hood off his head and Beetle gasped.

I was looking down at a little girl.

She must have been no older than six. The tunic wasn't too long—it was a dress.

"Welcome to the farm, Roach," the foreman said. "These bugs will show you to your room." He looked me in the eye. "Don't get too attached. This is only a waystation."

My heart pounded and I looked at the little blonde-haired girl kneeling in front of us, tears streaming down her face.

Roach was such an ugly name for such a little girl.

I glanced over at Beetle, who was staring straight ahead in barely concealed annoyance. "Dismissed! To your rooms!" the foreman called. "Go!"

Cricket began sprinting to our room and I saw that Roach stood up slowly with her head down. She was waiting for me to move. I went to grab her but felt the eyes of Tuck heavily weighing on me. I started walking off to my room. I felt Roach following closely behind at my back. I reached back my hand, and almost cried in relief when she slid her little hand into mine.

I carefully make my way up the narrow staircase to the dewloi quarters as one of the guys pushed me against the wall to pass. I but my lip in annoyance but finished climbing and quickly entered our room. I held the door for Roach, who walked in and froze. Her eyes darted over the beds and landed on one of the unoccupied ones. I quickly slid the weathered wooden chair under our doorknob and tested the handle.

Locked.

"Roach?" I started. When I turned around, Roach was already under the covers, asleep or pretending to be. She ignored me.

I went over to the window and locked it shut with the piece of leather. When I turned around, I saw Beetle staring at me. "What the hell?" she asked in a mixture of confusion and anger, trying unsuccessfully to keep her voice low to not wake the sleeping girl. Roach must have been exhausted.

"What?" I asked quietly.

"She's, like, six. What the hell? Why did they send a six-year-old girl to a farm?"

I shrugged and sat down next to Beetle. I traced a finger over the cut on her eyebrow and interpreted a little bit of healing into it. "It's looking better," I mumbled and leaned back. "I don't know. The foreman said that this was just a waystation. Whatever that means."

"None of us should be here. I shouldn't be here," she grumbled. She stared at me intently. "I'm going to burn these foremen alive once I get a chance."

My heart pounded, knowing she was telling the whole truth. The only thing that was stronger than her idiotic bravery was her hatred. "You never told me you had capacity for Oxblood," I joked weakly, trying to draw her attention away from her loathing. "Would have helped last winter."

Instead of the loathing disappearing, she whirled it onto me. "Yeah, well there's a lot we don't tell each other, isn't there?" The bitterness in her voice made my entire body lock up. No. Surely not.

I didn't say a word.

Finally, Beetle sighed. "Get off my bed and go to sleep. Check the door, like, seven times like you normally do. I'll see you in the morning."

I got up slowly and checked the door again. I climbed into bed as the events of today kept swimming in my mind. Tuck. Roach. And now Beetle. Maybe there would be a day when I wasn't the last one asleep. Tonight would not be that night.