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I opened my mouth to protest, then clamped it shut again. For the first time since last year, we were alone, touching, with a bed right beside us. My stomach roiled and pulled tight like cinching ribbons, breathless for more.
But he was right, dammit. With dawn quickly approaching, I needed to wake up in my own bed or this whole keep my friends out of danger thing would be utterly pointless when I failed to show up to my first class. My body would just have to calm the fuck down right now before I leaped all over him and—
Who knew such a beautiful mind could think such dirty thoughts? Coen tutted in my head, his canines winking. I had the strongest impression he’d just stopped me because if I continued, he’d be leaping all over me, too.
He held out his hand with practiced calm. “Come on. Over the next couple days, gather everyone you trust and meet me behind the Arboretum after your last class on Friday.”
My palm fell over his callouses as our plan came crashing back in a dousing bucket of cold reality. The king of old. The coup. The loophole. “Will Jagaros be meeting us there?”
“No.” Coen grinned. The ship rocked, but as he pulled me tight against him, he remained steadier than any anchor. “I’ll be taking you to the Uninhabitable Zone.”
A pause like the breath before a wave crashes down.
“I think it’s time for you to see the biggest secret of this island for yourself.”
CHAPTER
21
RAYNA
I made it back to the Wild Whisperer house in the nick of time, slipping into bed a mere half hour before Emelle’s birds began pecking on the window and Emelle herself rose with a tired scrunch of her nose to feed them.
Felicity’s eyes fluttered open from her perch on my nightstand. She rubbed them with hairy fists, then did a double take and scampered onto my bed.
“Oh good! You’re alive.”
I yawned and pretended to stretch, as if I’d been asleep for hours rather than staring at the ceiling, thinking about my new invisible hands that connected me to every object in this room and trying not to think about how Coen’s mouth had felt against my lips and throat and chest.
Emelle finished scattering birdseed on the windowsill and cast us a bemused glance. “Is there a reason Rayna wouldn’t be alive right now?”
Right. All she knew was that I’d gone to a party, not… everything else. I’d have to catch her up on Quinn, the secret Branding, and Coen, but Cilia had just moaned and straightened from across the room. Her hair stuck up in every direction as she cracked open an eye.
“Yeah, Rayna, do tell. Felicity just said you went to go participate in some kind of activity?” She wiggled her eyebrows, and I refrained from smacking my own forehead just as Willa scurried onto my lap with a sniffle.
“Whatever it was, please tell me you didn’t lose your ability to steal pastries from the kitchen. I’m feeling a passionfruit meringue tart today.”
Whether Willa was serious or just trying to save my ass, I was grateful when she and Felicity started bickering over the difference between tarts and pies. As we all threw on some clothes and did our hair for class, I sent a thought into Emelle’s head.
A lot happened last night. I’ll fill you in mind-to-mind on the way to class, but you can’t react or betray a single emotion, okay? I thought back to Mr. Gleekle warning me to keep last night’s Branding confidential. We might be being watched.
Emelle’s mouth pressed into a perfectly rigid line. What emotion?
Throwing my tangled, air-dried hair into a top-knot, I stifled a laugh. Okay, now you just look constipated.
Over the next three days, I communicated the plan to Emelle, Lander, and Wren in bits and pieces of stolen moments: meet behind the Arboretum after our last class on Friday, where Coen would take us to Jagaros in the Uninhabitable Zone. In the back of my mind, I stewed on the idea of inviting two other trusted friends, but Rodhi had his own spider war to deal with, and Gileon…
Well, Gil didn’t need to be dragged into something he was safer not knowing anything about.
Besides, every time I walked to or from class, a pair of eyes seemed to follow me, tracking my every move—one of the other pre-elites, no doubt making sure I didn’t spill the secret of my new brand or lose control of my magic.
What would happen if I did? Would I be dragged to the top of Bascite Mountain like all the others who failed their Final Tests or broke the rules? I wasn’t sure how much longer I could go on before another Object Summoning accident happened. Despite Sasha and Sylvie’s help, the magic bubbled beneath my skin, invisible hands stretching and grazing every object I passed, yearning to tug.
In our next Predators & Prey class, I accidentally knocked a ball of yarn while we were trying to deepen our relationships with spotted ocelots, sending several of the felines chasing after it until they all crashed into the classroom wall.
Fortunately, Mr. Conine had no idea what had caused the commotion, but panic still swirled in my chest as my Object Summoning hands flexed against my will.
In Spiders, Worms, & Insects, one glance at the giant centipede before me and the creature was suddenly wobbling, as if an invisible hand had just strummed its many arched legs that loomed over us—a phenomenon that had the rest of the class chortling and Ms. Pincette narrowing her eyes at me.
