“It—It’s Marigold,” he choked out. His dark hair hung limp around his face, his blue eyes ragged and lips parted. “I can’t find her.”
55
Clarissa
My forced composure threatened to snap. Alarm swept through me like a tidal wave, terror breaking the surface and gripping my heart.
“Nobody knows where she or my mother went,” he said. “I—I have to find them. I can’t?—”
“Thorne! What is it?” Galen asked from my left.
I swallowed hard. “He can’t find Marigold or Azura.”
Galen staggered backward with wide eyes, as if the words hit him like a blow to the chest. I knew he loved that little girl, and the guilt of it—ofallof it—was probably crushing him. It was only a matter of time until he broke.
Blood drained from his face, but he sucked in a breath and straightened his spine. “We’ll find her. I’ll help.” His gloved hands gripped Thorne’s shoulders tight. “Wewillget her back, Thorne. I promise you.”
“Where were they seen last?” I asked.
Thorne ran a shaking hand through his hair. “In a forest a little northeast of the Base.”
Another spike of panic shot down my heart. That was close to the hill near the eastern jungle, and Nox said the curse had already spread halfway across the island.
“Get on your horses and follow me.” Without another warning, I shifted and took off.
I tore through the island, faintly aware of two sets of horse hooves pounding on the ground behind me. It was difficult to track Marigold since I hadn’t been around her in my fox half and didn’t have a great idea of her specific scent, but I recalled her as best I could, searching for any sign along the terrain.
When we passed the Base, my magic began to fade. That golden light dimmed to a flickering candle, leaving a chill in its wake that spread from my chest and out into my limbs.
Come on, I thought to myself.Just a little farther.
I pushed my legs as fast as they would carry me, whipping through trees and jumping over logs. Holding on to my magic was like trying to cup a stream of water in the palm of my hand—it kept slipping between my fingers, draining inch by inch.
For a split second, my body involuntarily shifted to human, then back to a fox once more, like a stuttering heartbeat. I tripped over my tangle of limbs and barely managed to stay on my feet.
But then…
There.
The faintest scent of dirt mixed with florals, like the perfume I’d smelled on Azura over the weeks.
And blood. So much blood.
I put on a final burst of speed and lunged through a copse of bushes and into a nearby clearing, shifting to my human form with my last ounce of magic.
I followed the trail of dark blood and crushed grass until I found Azura leaning against a tree trunk.
“Please!” she cried out when she saw me. “You have to find her!” Her voice shook, her face streaked with tears and dark kohl. I glanced down to see her ankle caught in some sort of animal trap.
“Whathappened?”
“The others—they ran when it…when the blight came, and she—” Azura cut herself off and gritted her teeth. I knelt down and tried to wrench the jaws of the trap open, but it was shut tight, its teeth digging into the muscles of her ankle and calf.
“She ran. I think she was—was afraid,” Azura continued, breath labored. “I tried to chase her and—got caught.” Hooves sounded at my back as Galen and Thorne entered the clearing. Thorne didn’t even wait until his horse stopped before he leaped to the ground and sprinted over to us.
“Mother! Mother, are you alright?” He immediately reached for her ankle, wrenching the jaws apart just enough for her to slip her foot out. “Where is Marigold?”
With a quaking finger, Azura craned her neck and pointed to the jungle behind her.
