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It was only when Rodhi and I finally stepped back out into the patch of jungle before the conjoined trees that I caught a hint of something dark and fathomless eavesdropping on my thoughts.
Something infinitely more dangerous than a stream of spiders.
“Can you get Felicity and Willa back to the house?” I asked Rodhi.
The mouse blinked several times as I deposited her into his palms, clearly coming to for the first time in—how long had that been? Half an hour? An hour? I didn’t even know what time it was, what with the thick canopies blocking the sunlight anyway.
Felicity rubbed her eyes with one hairy fist, her free arm looped around Rodhi. Who cast me a nervous shake of his head.
“Don’t do it, Rayna. Whatever you’re thinking… just sleep on it. Spending too much time with Batshit can leave you feeling a little batshit yourself.”
That was for sure. Everything Aggie had said needed to ruminate in my brain for at least twenty-four hours before I came to any solid conclusions.
I smiled reassuringly, plucking my crescent knife out of midair and sending the rest shooting back into my sheath.
“Don’t worry. I’m not making any rash decisions.” I began to stalk in the opposite direction of home. “I just have a little stop to make before dinner.”
CHAPTER
39
COEN
One moment I was leaning against a tree half a mile away from where Rodhi had hid the Wild Whisperer, listening to Rayna’s flurry of thoughts…
The next she’d pushed me out and I was met with only silence.
Maybe if I still had the full force of my Mind Manipulating power I’d be able to break through her reinforced blockade and locate her anyway, but as it was, my power reached and reached, only to find nothing.
I stood up straight, muscles tensing. The little paper-wrapped box in my hand nearly crumpled from the force of my tightening grip.
Was she in trouble? Had I missed some telltale sign that she was in danger?
Fuck, if only we were vigates, I’d be able to feel her location like a stamp on the map of my heart and Walk straight to her. I hated this disconnect, this—
Vines shot around my torso, yanking me back against the tree with enough force that I almost dropped the box in my hands. A second later, a curtain of wild blonde hair obscured my vision as Rayna dropped to her feet in front of me.
Whole. Safe. So devastatingly beautiful that my breath hitched in my throat.
“Are you stalking me again?” she asked, crescent knife in her hand.
My muscles relaxed at the slight smile on her lips, but my heart tightened. Even without pointed ears and canines, she looked every bit like a faerie who’d been molded from the jungle itself, her eyes and dress as bright as the flora around us, her movements graceful but predatory as she prowled closer to me. Like a princess of the island. A queen of the world.
“I was trying to,” I replied smoothly despite the deep thudding of my heart. “Seems like you’ve decided to reverse the roles.”
“You’ve done enough scaring the shit out of me by popping up randomly. I thought I’d give you a taste of your own medicine.”
She inhaled as if to say more, then dropped her gaze with widening eyes. Not to the box in my hands as I’d hoped, but to my chest.
I lifted my eyebrows. “If you want me to take my shirt off, you’ll have to untie me first.”
“I don’t want you to—you’re bleeding, Coen!”
“Oh, that.” I peeked down to find… okay, yeah, a bit of ripped fabric and blood. “It’s not mine. Sasha, Sylvie, and I just took care of the Yellowseek elites and I haven’t finished cleaning myself up yet.”
No, as soon as I’d realized what day and time it was, I’d left my bucket of water and sponge and teleported just close enough to the Cardina market to listen in on Rayna’s last conversation with her friends. Then I’d spent the next hour communicating with Emelle and orchestrating a meetup spot for her to give me the box in my hands and for me to give her some coins.
Rayna didn’t even glance at the box, though. She took another step forward, brows creasing. “No, Coen, I think it might be yours…”
