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My subconscious stirred at the thought, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on something I wasn’t sure I could have.
“We can always try again tomorrow,” Emelle sighed with a glance out the window. “We told Wren and Gileon we’d meet them to watch all the new first-years come in anyway, remember, Rayna?”
Right. Tomorrow was the Branding, which meant a fresh batch of eighteen-year-olds would be flying in by carriage… any moment now, actually.
I blew out a breath and nodded. “Thanks for helping me again. Both of you.” I laid a hand on each of their shoulders, trying to convey how much it meant for me to have them by my side this time around. Their involvement still put them in danger, but… well, we were all in danger now anyway.
And Kitterfol Lexington was dead. I had enough confidence in my Mind Manipulating power to protect my friends from any elites who might have replaced him.
Emelle smiled, but I could tell it was a momentary mask to smother the panic rising in each of us at the thought of what our failure meant.
“We’re going to save him and the island, Rayna. There is a solution out there somewhere. We just have to keep—”
A deep rumbling cut off the rest of her words.
“Wait, what was that?” I asked.
Emelle shook her head, eyes wide. I jumped to my feet, wavering on the spot when the walls began shaking around us. Our pile of books toppled, pages flapping as they crashed to the floor in scattered heaps.
“Shit.” Lander helped Emelle up and waved a hand, sending the sprawl of fallen books back into their wiry disguises. “Maybe an Element Wielder playing a prank with their magic?”
For a moment, the three of us stood there, arms extended, waiting for the prank to stop. When it didn’t, Emelle and Lander exchanged glances that mirrored the panic scrabbling at my lungs.
Whatever this was, it reminded me of Kitterfol Lexington’s giant worm thudding to the forefront of my mind, sending vibrations skittering up and down my bones. Like something huge trampling a place where it didn’t belong.
Then distant screaming erupted from outside, and we all barged out of the storage building door together.
The jungle floor quaked beneath us as we ran back into the heart of the Wild Whisperer sector, toward the source of the commotion. My mind flashed with various memories at the eruption of even more screaming up ahead.
Jenia, on her hands and knees, drool swinging from her lips while the elites tormented her. The citizens of Hallow’s Perch as those monsters ripped them to shreds. The sound of my own scream when all my knives soared toward…
Oh, God, was it happening again?
Had Dyonisia Reeve set more exiled ones upon the Esholian Institute?
Just as we flew around the corner of Mr. Conine’s classroom, a flurry of students pushed past us, running in the opposite direction. One of them threw their head back over their shoulder to scream at us. “IT’S COMING!”
We skidded to a halt beside a gnarled tree, Lander throwing his arms in front of Emelle and me as something emerged from the alleyway up ahead.
Something that made horror lock up my limbs.
A monster, yes—definitely a monster. As large as a fallen log with an elongated, segmented body, hundreds of legs digging into the cobblestone beneath it, and a jaw with snapping forcipules each the size of curled swords.
“Where are the brands?” I whispered. We couldn’t turn the thing back into an exiled one if there were no brands to slice off. “Where are the brands?”
My friends didn’t have time to answer. The monster spotted us and pounced, legs scuttling, sending that same quake through the ground.
We stumbled backward. Lander waved his hand, but nothing happened. I told myself to grab a knife from my sheath, but my hands only shook at my side with the memories pounding through me.
Each of my blades spinning in midair, pointing toward Garvis, and impaling every part of his body…
Blood spurting from five different wounds…
Stained blades I hadn’t used since his death…
“Rayna!” Emelle shrieked when the back of my foot caught on a root of the gnarled tree and I fell backward, rocks scraping against the palm of my hand.
The monster reared like a snake, and I threw my arms over my face.
