Read Online The Tragedy of Knowledge by Rachael Wade - Free Book Online

instant, it was my sole purpose to help him find his way to his mom. If I didn’t complete that task, I would have been broken, a mechanical malfunction that needed a missing part to operate properly again.
    And that surety fueled my direction now.
    Gavin shot me an apprehensive side-glance and then stationed himself beside me, slipping his hands in his pockets. “Well, I don’t think a blue rowboat is going to appear out of thin air. And flying would get us to wherever we need to go faster. Do you remember anything else?”
    I bit the inside of my lip and turned in a slow circle, letting my eyes study our surroundings. “Nothing comes to mind, but this is where we’re supposed to start searching.”
    “Well …” His voice was unconvinced. “Let’s start heading up the bank, then, and go from there.”
    I nodded and trailed behind him, aware the darkness was imminent, the sunset almost complete. It was nightfall in my vision, the bayou enveloped in an eerie white fog that blanketed the water’s surface and slithered through the surrounding trees. We walked farther north and within minutes, the sunlight was gone and our flashlights were on. Low croaks, high-pitched chirps, and soft cooing echoed all around us, the bayou’s atmosphere swallowing us up in its hypnotic cocoon. Twigs and leaves crunched beneath our feet, and Gavin stopped, swinging around to meet me.
    “Baby, I don’t know if—”
    “ Sshhh ,” I lifted my head to the trees, then spun around when an echo of sinister laughter washed over me. “Do you hear that?”
    His eyes widened and he withdrew his silver dagger, tucking me behind him. “Hear what? What is it?” His voice dropped low and husky, his jaw set.
    “Cammmillle,” the voice hissed, followed by more laughter, and I withdrew my own blade, readying my stance while my eyes bounced everywhere to locate the source. I stumbled and bumped into Gavin when I heard another echo of poisonous snickering, the seductive, velvet sound sliding through me, making the hairs on my neck erect.
    “You really don’t hear that?”
    “Hear what? All I hear is insects and alligators.”
    I straightened and planted my feet into the muddy ground, shutting my eyes with hopes of pushing the voice out, away from us, out of my head, which is where I suspected it was originating in the first place.
    Good God, I was really losing it.
    My lashes flittering as I blinked, I reopened my eyes and flew back, smacking into Gavin’s chest. He wrapped his arms around me in a protective hold. Amidst the inky backdrop of the nearby bushes, beneath the ghoulish overlay of stringy Spanish moss, Scarlet snaked around the branches, weaving in and out of the oaks in a vibrant, apple-red silk dress, the thin spaghetti straps hugging her luminous white skin while the flowing skirt swayed around her knees.
    “Scarlet,” I choked, pushing back farther against Gavin’s chest. He tightened his grip around me and I could feel his chin move above my head, searching for the vixen in red.
    “Where?” He spoke low and hushed, shifting us to the left, then to the right. “Cam, hurry, tell me where she is.”
    “Right there.” I followed her with my eyes as she held my gaze and frolicked between two gigantic oaks.
    “Cammmilllle,” she cooed again, this time breaking eye contact with me to prance farther back into a copse of trees. The branches and moss seemed to entangle her entire form, reaching and wrapping around her arms and legs as she moved, but she showed no sign of distress, only a smirk. Her fingers toyed with the moss as it caressed her skin, eyes dancing with delight as it slithered beneath her long chestnut locks. She was an angelic serpent, a deceitful goddess of nature. When her eyes locked with mine again, the image stole my breath away.
    “Gavin, right there!” I pointed to the space between the oaks, gulping hard when she continued to slink in and around the brush, her body starting to fade in and out before