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“I don’t need your dlum—dumb minutes. When did they ever help me?”
He scoffed. “Stubborn and demanding? You’re in fine form today.”
“I always am! Like a pretty butterfly.”
“Obviously.”
“Keep the sass to yourself.” My right foot tangled in the left, and I flopped onto the grass in a huff.
“Did you just fall?”
“Nope! I wanted to use my elbows to see how wet the grass was. Super wet, in case you were wondering.” The mud stains looked like elbow patches on my jacket.
Other voices entered the chat, muffled and distant. Razai said hello and exchanged small talk. He sounded so absurdly peppy and upbeat, like he was fluffing his feathers around for his friends to see.
The killer’s line shifted to the side suddenly. And the sidewalk didn’t shift, which meant that my vision wasn’t fucking with me again. “Uh huh. Okay. Bye, you pretty peacock!”
“Listen to me,” he demanded suddenly, voice dropping. “Wait for me. Don’t do anything stupid.” The line went dead.
“So dramatic,” I snorted. As I watched the line, it shifted and moved. I had the distinct impression that I had a fish on my hook. A fish I’d been hunting for a long, long time. And now, it was mine to reel in.
Giddiness shook my core.
I jumped to my feet.
Razai would find me wherever I was. He always could.
Now that I had a killer on my hook, no way was I about to let them go. I followed the blue thread. My steps grew longer. Faster. A calm focus settled me into the one goal: finding my prey.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
I turned the corner of the building and froze. The thread led directly into the president’s building, stark white against the black sky. Toward the top, the tower melded into grays until the edges blurred.
This was the only building I’d never been inside.
Another tug urged me forward, as well as something concerning. The pretty blue killer’s thread began to fade. At first, I thought I was missing it in the dark, but now there was no denying it.
My time was running out.
I thought I’d have way, way more.
I broke out into a run. My head cleared a little too, which was a nice effect. Useless if I lost my grip on this thread, however.
I pushed the doors open, expecting to find people, but the building was empty. Where was everyone? Why was the campus so empty? Offices and conference rooms lay vacant behind locked doors, but thankfully, the elevators weren’t shut off.
I needed them, considering the thread led me upward.
The elevator doors opened. I hit the button for the fifth floor.
As I rose, the thread continued to lead me upward. For time’s sake, I skipped the floors by five. Wasting my spell by stopping at each of the fifteen floors wasn’t in the cards tonight.
Floor ten wasn’t high enough either. I swallowed, nerves making me shake. My finger hovered over the number fifteen. As if in a trance, my body moved, and the button glowed orange.
The elevator slid upward still, the killer’s thread tugging, tugging, tugging.
This is it.
In a brilliant spark of logic, I quickly texted Razai my location and goal.
