Page 25 of Wilds of Wonder
“And we definitely don’t talk about anything to do with our personal lives,” I continued. Also not true. Spirits below, I was lying a lot today. “He won’t tell me.” Especially after what I did almost two year ago. “If he wanted me to know, he would’ve already found a way to contact me.”
Leoni’s face twisted into confusion. “How? If you didn’t know anything about each other?”
I waved away her words. “We had a system, okay?” I groaned. “We don’t have time for this. Just trust me when I say he’s the bone collector, and if he has the bolt, as you’ve claimed he does, then we need to figure out why.”
A new game between us. One I had to win.
Leoni’s hand went to the hilt of her sword. “Well, since this is the only lead we have, I guess we have to follow it.”
“Follow him,” I said.
“Which is great, considering we have no idea where he’s headed,” Driscoll said.
“So what’s the plan?” Leoni asked.
“We’re going to track him,” I responded. “I’ve followed the bone collector enough times. I know how to be discreet. I know how he works. We’ll find him and steal the bolt from him, then get it to Princess Poppy. That’s why she sent you, right?”
They looked at each other again, a tension filling the air that I didn’t understand.
“Yes,” Leoni said, voice curt.
“Nothing can ever be simple,” Driscoll added.
“Well, let’s get going.” Leoni heaved a sigh. “He said he’d be leaving soon, so we don’t have a lot of time.”
I stood. “I agree. But first”—I gestured to my nightgown—“I need to change.”
Chapter Fourteen
MAVERICK
Ipaced in my office, glancing at that open window. The white rabbit had been here. In my office. The white rabbit was Emory Growley.
Emory. She had a name. I wanted to say it out loud, to see how it might feel on my lips, taste on my tongue. For years, we’d danced around each other. Years that I’d wondered what lay under that hood. Until she’d effectively cut me out of her life. No explanation. No warning. It still hurt. More than I wanted to admit.
Now I couldn’t stop picturing her face. I’d sat across from her, memorizing every single feature of her heart-shaped face with her small pointed nose and high cheekbones while she’d glared at me the entire time.
My lips twitched.
Hopefully I’d given her enough time to escape. She’d need to be more careful. I wondered how the guards had found her in the first place. I never took the white rabbit for someone to make mistakes, to be careless enough to get caught. She pulled a lot of dangerous stunts, but she also covered her tracks.
It didn’t matter. I wouldn’t have time to find her again. To play another one of our games.
I was out of time. I had to leave. Now. I glanced at the corner of my office, a small leather satchel packed with a few essential items I’d need to survive the next few months.
I stiffened.
The white rabbit had been alone in my office with that satchel. I rushed to open it, then slumped against the floor in relief when I saw the bolt inside, sizzling and sparking with power. She’d bested me enough times, taken items right under my nose. But this was the one item I couldn’t let her have.
Spirit Sky’s bolt. I still couldn’t believe it was real. That it was in my possession.
The door to my office banged open, and I quickly pulled the string on the satchel, tying it closed and praying to Spirit Fire I’d been fast enough.
I stood, running a hand over my hair. “Professor Gungar.” I nodded.
“Professor Von Lucas,” the older man said, raising his chin and sniffing like I’d somehow already offended him.
I’d come to learn that my very existence offended him, especially ever since the frost queen chose me as the historical advisor on her council over Gungar, a personal blow to the old man who’d been the queen’s advisor for as long as anyone could remember. Then there was the fact that I never accepted any invitations from the professors. Not for their weekly outings to the tavern, not for their parties, not for their monthly dinners. I couldn’t, not when I was so focused on my career. The only reason I went to Lord Growley’s party the other night was because he made large donations to the academy.
