Page 86 of An Invocation of Monsters

Twenty minutes of walking down a beaten path in the forest brought me to a meadow, and that was where I discovered where Kiraxis’s gift of flowers had come from.

The meadow bordered the lake, thick with knee-high grass, but Kiraxis had left enough flowers behind for the bees, who droned lazily around me.

A flash of white from the edge of the forest caught my eye. Kase was standing under a gnarled cherry tree, talking to someone high up in the branches.

I pushed my way through the grass, almost stumbling a few times on hidden rabbit holes. When the kid looked my way, I waved and forced a smile.

Luckily for me, Joseph and Mary were nowhere in sight.

“What are you doing all the way out here?” Kase asked. He held a woven basket with only a few clumps of dark cherries in it. Willow was a solid twenty feet in the air, her dress hiked up around her legs as she straddled a branch.“We’re gathering the first harvest. It’s Willow’s favorite, for the last— for one of the dinners. Later this week. We were going to surprise you.”

“I had a few questions for you, actually.” I came to a stop at his side, watching Willow shimmy her way down a branch to shake the cherries free.

“Shoot.” Kase offered me a cherry from the basket and I took it.

“I want to know exactly what happened to Tasha Vintner.”

Even Willow stopped shaking the branch for a moment to look down at me. Kase had stopped in mid-stoop, his hand frozen over the cherries on the ground.

“Down to every gory detail,” I added. “Mary and Joseph aren’t here, and I promise that I won’t ever tell them you spoke to me.”

They managed to unfreeze themselves, taking on their usual air of nonchalance that I was convinced was a charade.

Kase picked up the cherries, but instead of dropping them in the basket he rolled one between his fingertips, examining it intently.

“You can study that all day, but I’m not leaving until my questions are answered,” I said evenly. I planted my feet where I stood and crossed my arms for good measure.

Kase sighed. “Some things are best left alone, Elle.”

“And some things aren’t, and I’m pretty sure this qualifies. Did you ever meet her in person?”

Kase stared at me, his lips pressed together so tightly they turned white, but it was Willow who answered.

“No,” she said in her vague, sing-song way. “Tasha was before us. Kase didn’t even get to join until after she was gone.”

She scrambled off her branch and climbed even higher, demonstrating an almost squirrel-like climbing ability.

Kase rolled his eyes upwards. “True. I never met her.”

I could see they were going to make this like pulling teeth. “Have you ever been in her quarters? Looked through her things?”

At this, Kase actually managed to look shocked and appalled. “No. Nobody is allowed to touch a founder’s belongings without permission.”

“So the phrase ‘If I am missing, I did not go willingly’ means nothing to you?”

I studied him intently when I recited the words from Tasha’s photo, but no recognition registered in Kase’s gaze.

“No,” he said, sounding bewildered now. “Why?”

“Because I don’t think—”

“Mary used to,” Willow said dreamily. “She used to go into Tasha’s rooms sometimes. Once I came in and she told me she was packing up her things, because Tasha had moved on. I don’t think she ever finished packing, though. Sometimes Mary gets sidetracked by ideas. She has such grand ideas.”

Kase sighed.

“Since Willow can’t keep her mouth shut—” He directed this upwards through gritted teeth. “I’ll tell you this. We’re not allowed to talk about Tasha. She is considered an off-limits subject, and we will be permitted to know more once we’ve completed our apprenticeships. You’re jeopardizing us, Elle. We didn’t know her, we never met her, and I have no idea what happened to her. All we know is that she’s gone. Okay? Is that enough? I’ve been here for years and I’ve got years to go, and I’m not going to let you fuck up my chances because you don’t know when to leave things alone.”

He was breathing hard, his fist clenched at his side, nostrils flaring. I held up my hands in a peace-keeping gesture.

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