Carve My Pumpkin (The Night Realm: Halloween Marked #3)

Chapter 20

TWENTY

MATEO

We had a lead . . . finally.

It was a relief to know what my soulmate looked like. I couldn’t remember running into her or even touching her. But it could’ve happened at any moment when I’d gotten hurt or been unconscious. I thought I knew everyone on the Island, but her face was a mystery to me. I pulled my phone from my pocket once more and glanced down at her. She was striking in a way I couldn’t describe, with dark-green hair that flowed down past her elbows and matching green eyes. Her skin had a warm olive tone. I could only imagine what it felt like. In my mind, it was warm and smooth to the touch.

I wanted badly to find her and ask if she’d been looking for me the way I’d been looking for her. I walked even faster toward the fall festival grounds and where they held the bonfire night. The scent of cinnamon, warm apples, and cocoa filled the air. The fire had already started and burning embers floated up toward the sky. As I got closer to the fire, screams filled the air and I quickened my steps. The sound of crashing followed the screams, and a moment later a charging hippo running backwards knocked over the tents in front of me.

My eyes widened and I froze like a deer in headlights as a giant hippo’s ass came right at me. My body jolted to the side, and I hit the ground with a sharp smack . Blonde hair covered my chest and arms, and I lay there for a moment feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. I sucked in a deep breath and Colette’s unique floral scent filled my senses.

She rolled off me and flopped down on her side, spread out on the ground like a starfish. “Whoa.”

“Colette,” I groaned. “Have you thought about playing professional athletics?”

She shook her head and chuckled. “That thought had not occurred to me, Mateo.”

Just then Nash sprinted by chasing after the hippo. “Where is your helmet?”

“I didn’t think I’d be a target tonight,” I called out after him, “Where’s your fiancée?”

Nash pointed in the direction of the path of destruction. “Hippo!”

“Your lack of preparation shocks me,” Colette teased as she rolled onto her side.

“Yeah, me too.” I rose to my feet and offered her my hand.

She took it, and for a moment I was shocked by how soft her skin was. Will my soulmate’s feel like this ? Would she have the same fire and sass, or would she be calmer, perhaps quiet? Did I want quiet, or did I want someone who would fight back?

Colette let her hand slip from mine, and she tucked a strand of that long blonde hair behind her tiny, pointed ear. “I apologize for knocking you to the ground.”

“Nothing to apologize for. You saved me from another bout in the hospital.”

She gave me a dazzling smile and turned back toward the bonfire. “Well, at least tonight we don’t have to pull any sleeves up to look at arms. We actually have a face.”

I couldn’t believe it. “Thanks to you.”

“Well, don’t thank me yet.” She wagged her finger at me. “But I will find her.”

“I know you will.” I honestly believed her.

“Shall we divide and concur?” She clapped her hands together and rubbed them back and forth.

I hesitated. This whole time all I wanted was away from Colette, but now that my soulmate was on the horizon, I knew she’d be my assistant and perhaps we could even learn to get along. “Like you said, teamwork makes the dream work. Perhaps we stick together for this one. Besides, I’d like for you to meet her.”

She licked her lips and gave me a little nod. “I’d like to meet her.”

“Excellent.” I motioned for her to walk with me, and we strolled toward the bonfire.

We fell into a comfortable silence as we moved through the broken benches left behind Torren’s path. Colette tiptoed over the broken pieces of benches until she found one that would fit us both. She took a seat and slid to the side, making room for me. I dropped down beside her, and we both looked out over the crowd of people gathered around the fire. There were couples spread all around. The Bow family was on the other side of the fire chatting while Bash held a flaming marshmallow in his hands.

I raised my eyebrows at that, and before I could say a word, Colette started to giggle. “Well, that’s one way of roasting a marshmallow.”

“Or perhaps that is?” I pointed toward the two craziest citizens on the Island.

Jimbo ran up behind one of the tents, then dropped to the ground and began to army crawl across the grounds. He wore a dark-beige jumpsuit and black army boots. He had a big container of some kind of white liquid strapped to his back and what looked like a hose running from it. He held the spicket in his hands and used his elbows to pull himself across the ground. The white liquid swished with each move he made.

Colette wrinkled her nose. “I have no idea what that is, but whatever it is, I don’t want to be here for it.”

“Me either.” I let my eyes roam over the crowd. There wasn’t a single person who looked like my soulmate. But I wasn't quite ready to leave just yet.

Colette nudged me with her elbow and nodded her chin the other direction. “We might not have to, not if they have something to do with it.”

Across from where Jimbo crawled, Gertie and Susan hid behind a tent. They each had some kind of sack strapped across their bodies that was full of something heavy.

Colette covered her mouth and started to giggle. “This is gonna be something else. We better look for your soulmate quick before that happens.”

“You know what the scariest part about this whole thing is?” I glanced around.

She lowered her voice to a whisper. “ No, what ?”

“I haven’t seen Sal yet and those two travel in a pack.”

She nodded. “I’m wondering where Sylvie is myself.”

I looked around once more, and still there was no sign of a fae with dark-green hair and eyes to match. I wanted her to be here, needed her to be here, and yet she wasn’t. Maybe she once had been but now she was gone. “Maybe she’s not even on the Island?”

Her head snapped around. “What?”

“What if she’s not on the Island?” I glanced at the Bows as they began to drift away from the fire and walk around the tents.

“Then I guess we’ll have to expand our search.” She sat back and watched as Jimbo got closer to the bonfire.

But then Gertie and Susan were right behind him. When he was nearly to the benches, they each pulled a balloon filled with something from their satchels. They giggled in their hands, and I had no idea what to expect. They held the balloon up, about to throw them right at Jimbo, when Sal sprang from out of nowhere. He too wore a brown jumpsuit except he had a safari hat covered in fall leaves on top of his head. The canister on his back was full of that white stuff. He pointed the hose at them, then pulled the lever. That thick white slime sprayed across Susan and Gertie’s backs. They leapt into the air and their balloons went flying. When they crashed to the ground, the balloons exploded and bright-orange webs covered the ground.

But they recovered quickly and turned to throw their balloons filled with webs at Sal, who dodged them. Jimbo rolled to his back and took aim at Gertie and Susan. They were almost surrounded. Then a cloud of balloons floated across the tents with swirling magic around them.

Colette chuckled even louder as she sprang to her feet. “Sylvie has arrived.”

“Should I be worried?” I rose to stand beside her.

“Oh yeah.” She motioned for me to follow her. “We need to move.”

The balloons hovered over Jimbo and Sal. Sylvie melted from the tents with her wand held high and a devilish smirk on her face. I started to move away faster and Colette quickened her pace as well. Sylvie flicked her wrist, and the balloons started dropping like bombs over Jimbo and Sal, covering them in bright-orange webs. The webs expanded outward and began to cover the ground like a creeping fog. People all hurried away, and we were no exception. I did not want to get covered in webs or whatever that white stuff was in their canisters.

When we were at a safe distance, I started to slow my pace and sucked in deep breaths. “That was a bit of a bust.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t find her.” Colette looked up at me with wide eyes.

“Well, at least we know what she looks like now.” I wasn’t angry we didn’t find her. I knew what she looked like, and that was a huge lead—a lead I wouldn’t have had without Colette.

“I’ll find her.” Her voice turned serious. “I promise.”

“I know you will.” And this time I really believed that she would.