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“Alright, alright, enough, you two.” I set down my tray—now almost empty—and deposited Willa back onto my nightstand. I’d love to go,” I told Cilia, “but only if you go with me.” I pointed at Felicity, whose eyes popped into miniature saucers. “I think you need a break from this room, and if you really don’t want to venture out into the jungle, then you can at least see the inside of a different house.”

Both the mouse and the monkey beamed.

Thirty minutes later, I followed Cilia and Mitzi into one of the Object Summoner mansions with Felicity clinging to my side.

Plenty of people pointed or stared at us as soon as I stepped over the threshold, but I was pretty sure a monkey accompanying a Wild Whisperer to a party wasn’t as odd a sight as all the levitating instruments and drinks flying around.

Nor the floating tables upon which people danced.

Rodhi must have dragged Gileon in, because I saw the latter in the corner, a shy smile on his face while surrounded by a band of admirers who were probably asking about his giant centipede escapade. Rodhi himself, of course, was one of the people dancing on the floating tables. Wouldn’t expect anything less.

“Here, Rayna.” Cilia snatched a drink wafting in midair and handed it to me before grabbing one for her and Mitzi, too. “Drink up.”

They both chugged theirs. I took a hasty swallow and released mine back into the air before either of them could notice. Even with my weekly magic suppressants, I had to be careful not to trigger my innate power in any way. It wouldn’t take true shape unless I went through a catastrophic event, according to Coen, but it could still throw a magical tantrum that would hurt everyone around me.

No, thanks.

“What’s that?” Felicity asked suddenly, pointing at something across the room.

“Oh. That’s…” An Object Summoner making out with a Shape Shifter, who’d stretched out his limbs and twined them around and around them both so that they looked like a trembling, vaguely humanoid cocoon. “That’s nothing,” I said quickly, steering us around. “C’mon, let’s dance.”

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t even want to think about partying with the entirety of the island’s future at stake. But what else was I going to do while I waited for Coen? Toss and turn in bed? Chew my lips to shreds?

Plus, Felicity obviously needed an outlet, so I ignored every pair of eyes that gawked at us as I carried her into the throng and began spinning us in circles.

We twirled to the melody of the lyre, shuffled and kicked to the boom of the tuba, shimmied and wiggled our hips to the tune of the viola. Soon, Felicity was throwing back her head with a wheezing laugh as she clutched my shoulders, and Rodhi had spotted us from his floating table.

“Rayna! Get your ass up here!”

“Oh no.” I stopped, breathless and giggling at the expression on Felicity’s face, to place a hand on my chest. “I couldn’t.”

He yelled a retort, but it was lost in the clang of a tambourine above our heads. And at that moment, a finger tapped me on the back of my shoulder.

I turned mid-laugh to find myself face-to-face with none other than Quinn.

“Hi, Rayna,” she said stiffly.

My smile died on my lips. What did she want? The last time my ex-best friend had talked to me, it had been at a party just like this… but I’d been the one saying hi, and she’d been the one running away. After that, I’d only ever seen her from a distance or from behind statues in hallways, refusing to approach her again.

“Hello,” I said just as stiffly.

Quinn’s hair was back to its usual ruby-red color, but there was something about her appearance that was slightly wrong, slightly warped. Like she’d been using that extra Shape Shifting power from the Good Council to alter little characteristics about herself: her eyes more saturated, her nose thinner, her lips fuller.

Inhaling sharply, Quinn glanced at Felicity, whose lips curled upward, before reverting her eyes back to me.

“Can we talk?” she asked under her breath.

I remained rooted in place, the throng of people dancing and moving around us. “About what?”

Quinn shook her head. “I can’t say in front of…” Her pupils bounced around the room. “Look, can you just come with me? Somewhere quieter?”

I wanted to say no. She’d evaded me for the last two years and expected me to drop what I was doing on a whim just because she finally felt like talking? But my curiosity betrayed me, my head giving a curt nod before I could stop myself.

Dammit. Why had I done that? Maybe I should have just picked through her brain with my Mind Manipulating power to find out what she wanted that way, but I already felt guilty enough about the last time I’d done that to her without her knowing.

Quinn didn’t look relieved, as I’d expected. In fact, a beat of trepidation flashed across her face before she spun around and led Felicity and I into a darker alcove past the staircases. Here, lit candlesticks hovered in midair, their light washing over the room with a soft, wavering glow that illuminated a few comfy chaises lining the wall.

Out of nowhere, homesickness lashed me square in the chest.