Page 20

RAYNA

I lay awake far past midnight, waiting for Coen’s voice to tell me goodnight, but the minutes slipped by with only Emelle’s even breathing and Cilia’s jerky snoring to break the silence of my own racing thoughts.

Where was he? Had something happened to him? He’d never forgotten to check in before, and I had no way to contact him if he wasn’t in Mind Manipulating range.

Worry weaseled its way into my chest and nibbled at all the what-if possibilities, cutting them loose until they exploded in my mind. What if he’s hurt? What if he’s imprisoned? Stuck or lost? What if the queen found out that he’s trying to break his oath to her? Could she have k—

I couldn’t even finish that last thought. My lungs strained with the effort to breathe normally. I had two powers—three if you counted the formless one I’d been born with—and yet I’d never felt so powerless.

Tossing to my other side, I closed my eyes and counted to ten. Then twenty. Then thirty.

By the time I reached one hundred, I finally kicked back the sheets and crept to our window, careful to open it slowly so that I wouldn’t wake the others. Felicity’s tail twitched in her sleep when the noises of the night filtered through the gap, but otherwise, no one stirred.

I rested my hand on the ledge, letting the vines twine around my fingers in a silent greeting before bringing my lips to their leafy ends.

“Can you help me up?” I whispered.

Because I couldn’t just stay here in this room, tossing and turning and conjuring up horrible scenarios. I needed fresh air before panic cracked open the innate power in my chest and let it loose.

The vines—in this case, climbing fig—usually emitted a soft, silky humming sound, like a background frequency that curled around my senses… but now the sound increased in pitch and vibrato.

Yes, they could help me.

“Thank you,” I whispered, hoisting myself up onto the ledge and swinging my feet over.

The climbing fig wrapped around each of my limbs and pulled me upward, past the first-year floor on the highest level and onto the Wild Whispering roof, where moss slicked the shingles in the ghostly light of a dense nighttime fog.

The vines unraveled, leaving me there between gables, and I scoured the spread of jungle past Bascite Boulevard as if Coen might be hiding somewhere between the trees. Of course, there was nothing to see, even if there was plenty to hear: owls hooting out riddles, the soft drone of rain in the distance, the humming of the jungle, the whining trill of insects, the breath of wind…

Come back to me, Coen, I thought out into the night. Come back.

I leaned my head back, gazing upward without really seeing. Thankfully, after several minutes of basking in the sounds of the island and fresh air, my heart did slow to a normal pace again, although my mind still spun with all the thoughts my subconscious had been harboring for me.

Last year, it had seemed like Coen was always there when I didn’t want him. Now that he was officially the Fated General, he was never here when I yearned for him. There was only one way we’d be able to form a bond that transcended every obstacle, but the likelihood of Fate granting it to us…

What happened to all the couples who were denied? Did they break up? Or did they stay together, knowing some other soulmate might be out there somewhere? How did Fate even—

What do you think you’re doing up there, little hurricane?

I jumped, a potent kind of relief flooding through me as Coen’s familiar presence grazed my mind.

He was back. He was okay.

But something about his tone—always a little too cocky for his own good—planted a tiny seed of stubbornness within that relief. He had a knack for bringing out the most biting side of me, after all.

So I regained my composure long enough to feign indifference.

I’m stargazing, of course.

I could practically feel his eyebrow quirk. On a cloudy night like this?

I’m cloudgazing, I amended. You should come join me. I patted the roof beside me as a joke, but couldn’t help feeling a twinge of disappointment when he didn’t materialize at my side.

I’m closer than you think, actually, he simply replied, not taking the bait. I can see the same night sky you can. But I’d rather watch you.

Is that so? Just as I was about to lift myself onto my elbows to squint into the darkness and try to spot him, his dark, fathomless magic hooked me around the middle…

And dragged me into his mind.