Page 62 of The Wild Zone

She unzipped her hazmat suit, reached inside, and pulled out a feather.

It wasn’t the kind of grungy black feather you’d pick up off the sidewalk and be forced to drop because your mom claimed it was full of mites that would eat your brain.

This feather was beautiful.

It was vibrant blue and orange, almost a foot long. Honestly, I didn’t know how Zuri even managed to fit it in her pocket. The only things at camp with feathers that big were pegasi and harpies, and neither of them were so colorful.

Benny took the feather and held it up for examination. “You found this in the Wild Zone?”

Zuri nodded. “And if it’s from the kind of monster I think it is, we’re all in big trouble.”

Harper gaped at her. “Why? What kind of monster do you think it’s from?”

Zuri shook her head. “Let’s just say we might have crossed paths before. The odds of that thing being here, though…”

I waited for her to go on. When she didn’t, I pressed. “Can you tell us—”

“No,” Zuri snapped. Then she took a deep breath. “I just want to be sure before I say any more. Because if I’m right…I need to kill it.” She checked herself. “We need to kill it.”

Okaaay, then.

She’d infused the words that thing with so much hate I could tell this was personal. And obviously, she didn’t want to share details.

I made a mental note to ask her about this later.

Benny turned to me. “Katie, the creature in the trees that followed you and Grant—could it have had feathers like this?”

I ran a hand down my face. “Maybe? I’d like to think I would’ve noticed enormous orange-and-blue feathers, but honestly, it was too dark to see much. We could ask one of the counselors if they recognize it.”

Zuri shook her head. “We’ve had zero luck getting help from the staff. Argus doesn’t want to admit there’s a problem. Clarisse doesn’t want to get into trouble. Who else are you going to ask? The Stoll brothers? They’d probably try to sell the feather on eBay. Silena? Beckendorf? Lee Fletcher? I mean, they’re nice enough, but they’re not going to take this as seriously as us. Worst-case scenario, we’ll end up with more people wandering around the woods, possibly into the Wild Zone, and disappearing.”

I flinched at that.

Zuri took back the feather from Benny and slipped it into her coveralls. “Sorry, but it’s the truth.”

I hugged myself. “Well, I don’t want to be the reason anyone else gets taken.”

“Agreed,” Harper said. “Everyone’s safe for now, since they’re not allowed into the woods…right?”

Zuri’s face was not reassuring.

It would be strange if the monster we were dealing with just happened to be something from Zuri’s past. That seemed like a huge coincidence. Then again, I remembered what the hooded man had told me: None of this is random. If I had been chosen to be here, I wondered if the same was true for the others.

I found that idea deeply disquieting.

“I never checked the camp’s archives,” I said. “I could do that tomorrow.”

“I could ask around discreetly,” Harper added. “A little charmspeak might shake loose some information.”

“Good,” Zuri said. “I don’t want to wait longer than we have to, but we need to be more prepared before we face…whatever is out there. Can we reconvene tomorrow tonight?”

The three of us looked at Benny, who was frowning at the silverware trays. After a moment, he sighed.

“Families shouldn’t keep secrets,” he said, “but I don’t know if what we have so far is even worth calling a secret. And I agree we need more information before we tell anyone else.” He looked at each of us in turn. “On that note, if anyone has any other secrets they need to share, now would be a good time.”

I gave him a blank look. It was better than my other option, which was ugly-crying. I hadn’t even told them about the ring’s magic yet. Much less the hooded man. Or the secret scroll. Or what had happened to my mom and sister. Or, or, or…

It was too much for my brain to handle. Way too much to share. I tried to believe I was being logical by keeping the full story to myself, rather than just being a coward.