Page 60

Within seconds, my darkness spit me out onto Bascite Boulevard below, where a certain straggler was whistling a merry, off-key tune, hands in his pockets, as he staggered toward the men’s Wild Whisperer house.

“Where is she?”

I pushed him against the stone wall with enough force to crack a weaker man. But Rodhi Lockett had gained enough muscle since the last time I’d seen him that he simply blinked at me, raised his palms in the air, and gave a slow, leisurely smile.

“Well, hello. You’re even scarier in person. Especially with that mask.”

In person? What the fuck was this kid talking about? Not only was my face covered, but I’d erased his memory of my existence two years ago, so unless Rayna had described me to him in detail since then…

No, that wasn’t it. As soon as I dug deeper into his mind, I realized what nobody else did, except for maybe that Spiders, Worms, & Insects instructor: this was actually a formidable person I had shoved up against a wall. His shit-eating grin would indicate otherwise, but his army of arachnids made him privy to nearly every secret on this island. Including the Good Council. Including Dyonisia Reeve.

Including Rayna and me.

“You were the last person to see Rayna at that party,” I said, ignoring the pleasantries. “Walk me through it. Tell me exactly what you heard, saw, felt, everything. Where’d she go?”

Of course, I’d already extracted this memory from his mind. There was nothing else he could tell me that I didn’t already know, but a desperate kind of viciousness was rising within me the longer I didn’t know where Rayna was.

If something had happened to her…

“Look, I was just doing my thing,” Rodhi said, his words slurring, “showing everybody how to shake an ass, the usual, you know? I saw Rayna doing her own thing with her monkey friend, asked her if she wanted to join me, she said no, and then that fire-breathing human snake showed up.”

“Quinn,” I said, cold dread leaking into my voice.

“Yeah, her. Hate that bitch. Anyway, Quinn started walking away and Rayna followed. Little bit later, they both reappeared and left the party together.”

“Without Felicity?”

“Yeah, without the monkey.” For the first time, Rodhi’s eyebrows creased with a dawning concern. “Hey, you don’t think Quinn dragged Rayna into some Element Wielder basement to murder her, right?” Without waiting for me to answer, he glanced around blearily, then spoke to seemingly nothing. “Well, did she?”

From the eaves above, several palm-sized spiders lowered themselves onto his shoulder from twinkling, dangling threads. I didn’t know what kind they were, couldn’t hear them make a single noise, but Lockett nodded with a frown.

“Oh, shit. That’s not a good sign.”

“What’s not a good sign?” I growled.

“Apparently Rayna and Quinn met up with Mr. Gleekle and some other students right here on Bascite Boulevard, then left for the jungle.”

Now icy rage swept through my veins.

They’d done it. They’d taken Rayna and given her a third brand, and I’d been… fuck, I’d been gone, all the way on the other side of the island without her. She’d been alone. She was alone, right now, this second…

“Which direction?” I asked Rodhi, my voice fracturing.

“I’ll show you if you let me go.” Realizing I still had a firm grasp on his collar, I released him, and he massaged his chest. “Thanks. Next time you want to put your hands on me, all you have to do is ask.” He winked at me—winked—then jerked his head toward the alleyway leading to the trees beyond. “This way.”

With no other leads, I followed his staggering footsteps down the alleyway, stalking after him toward the jungle.

As soon as we stepped foot beneath the fan of leaves that dripped dew from above, branches rustled against my sides, brushing my arms.

“Are you doing that?” I asked Lockett.

There was no wind right now. The branches couldn’t possibly be moving without a Wild Whisperer urging them to, but Lockett just blinked rapidly.

“Whaaaat?”

He was drunk. Too drunk to be stumbling through the wild with someone who would leave him behind in half a heartbeat if he slowed me down. In a last-ditch effort to cling to my humanity, I stopped him in his swaying tracks.

“Tell your spiders to lead me to her and go home before you get lost.”