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But as the others stepped forward to close their hands around my wrists and arms and elbows, a sudden surge of violence ripped through my spine, marking everyone but Rayna as prey.
No. Queen Mydusia’s command and the new altercation she’d made to it would just have to fucking wait. Rayna’s friends were all branded citizens under her rule, but my time wasn’t up. Not until midnight.
So I smothered that murderous urge and yanked us into darkness before any of them could notice the way the tattoo had begun to crawl along my skin.
CHAPTER
23
RAYNA
I clung to Coen’s hand as he dragged us through his space between stars, relishing the warmth of him against my skin in this cold, dark nothingness.
The sight of him materializing among the trees had filled me with a rush of butterflies—not the kind we’d just left behind in the alleyway, but a dizzying vortex of wings in my stomach. In the jungle, he’d ripped his mask off before I could truly process his presence. Seeing it fitted to his face now, covering the features I’d memorized with tendrils of copper, made me wish there was one single room on this island where we could be alone so I could rip it off. Just the two of us.
Just then, Coen’s darkness peeled back like flower petals, and every thought of rooms fled my mind as we blinked into warm, buttery sunlight.
“Um, should we maybe rethink the name of this place?” Rodhi asked, scratching his head. “Because ‘uninhabitable’ feels a little bit inaccurate to me.”
It wasn’t just a little inaccurate. It was utterly, wholly, drastically wrong.
The Uninhabitable Zone spread out all around us in a breathtaking rise and fall of staircases, pathways, archways, and gazebos that seemed to move with the land like ocean waves. A domed palace glimmered in the distance, set up against a rocky cliff, and pond water sparkled in sweeping patches down below.
Best of all was the music that fanned out from yellow trailing lilies that wound around limestone railings, the royal palms springing from gaps between stone, and the ferns crowning the roofs of bordering alcoves: warm and welcoming, like a lullaby I’d forgotten about. The sound took root within me and spread like vines, as if I’d finally found a place to call home.
“Are you crying?” Wren asked under her breath.
Coen’s head whipped toward me. I swiped at my eyes hastily, cheeks heating at how easily I seemed to produce tears lately. “No. These are just… dew drops.”
As soon as I’d spoken the words out loud, a new voice boomed out, “Rayna Drey? I was wondering if I’d ever get to see you again.”
Emelle, Lander, and Gileon swept aside to reveal none other than Terrin barreling toward me. He looked more pirate-like than the last time I’d seen him in Hallow’s Perch, his facial hair rugged, his skin more weathered, a few new tattoos peppering his shoulders.
He threw his arms around me, and I gave him a happy squeeze back. “Missed you, Terrin.” From over his shoulder, the twins waved at me, and someone else stepped into view with a masked expression.
“Daz!”
I pulled away from Terrin and took a half, uncertain step toward the unlikely friend I’d made last year. She, too, looked as if she’d truly been living every minute on a ship these last six months, her braids tied back in a checkered bandana, her sleeves tattered, her dark skin an even deeper golden, sun-kissed brown.
“You look great,” I said earnestly.
Dazmine’s lips twisted in a suppressed smile. “You, too. Looks like you found a new style that suits you a little better than those ugly dresses.”
“I have a monkey to thank for that,” I laughed, glancing down at the free-flowing cross-body outfit that Felicity had stitched and tied up for me yet again. One day, I was going to petition for her to open up her own shop.
“Rayna Drey.”
The voice didn’t need my Wild Whispering magic to translate like it usually did, but I knew who it belonged to immediately.
Whirling around, I locked eyes with a faerie in a beaded loincloth and a shoulder mantle that wasn’t quite high enough to hide the stripe noosing his neck. His ears stood even sharper than Coen’s, his pupils slitted, almost feline.
“It’s you,” I said.
Jagaros dipped his head. “It’s me.”
All around us, everyone seemed to hold their breath until there was only the melody of the trees and far-off chime of falling water.
“Are you…” I began, a strange emotion welling within me, “I mean, is this your true form?”
