They searched for twenty minutes, by which time Barclay’s fingers had blistered and his muscles ached. The others had certainly reached the other side of town by now. Maybe they’d found something important. He hoped they had, because he and Tadg definitely hadn’t.

“I don’t get it!” Tadg seethed. “He and I were the only ones who knew the safe’s combination. And he kept all his work in his room.”

But all that remained of the room was a small stretch of wall and nothing else. They’d cleared away most of the debris except for the heaviest beams, and everything was damp. Puddles pooled in between stones. Dust and dirt smothered every surface.

“It has to be here,” Tadg breathed.

“Croak.”

“What did you say?” Tadg growled at him.

Barclay held his hands up. “I didn’t say anything.” But he’d heard the sound too. It reminded him of a stomach rumbling, or maybe a belch.

“We’ll keep looking.” Tadg bent down to try to pick up a beam that Barclay could already tell was too heavy to lift, but Barclay squatted to help him anyway.

“Croak.”

“All right, what is that?” Tadg let go of the beam and whipped around.

Then Barclay spotted it. On a wet stone only a few feet away from them sat a toad. It had bumpy green skin and a large gem at the center of its head.

“Is it a Beast?” Barclay asked. He’d never seen a toad with a stone in it before.

“Not like one I’ve ever heard of.” Tadg bent down to get a closer look, then the toad leapt at him and landed on the back of his hand. Tadg tried to shake it off, but it was as though the creature had suctioned itself to his skin. Then Tadg let out a loud yelp. “Ow! It—it bit me or something! Get it off me!”

Indeed, something dark and purple began to seep across Tadg’s hand.

“Here—stay still—I can’t—” Barclay reached forward to grab the toad, but a moment before he touched it, it disappeared. “Huh? Where did it go?”

Tadg searched the puddle where they stood. “Probably fell.”

“I didn’t hear a splash.”

“Yeah, but… No. You have got to be kidding me.”

“What is it?” Barclay asked.

Tadg showed him the back of his right hand, and below the purple mark the toad had left behind, Barclay saw another mark, this one metallic and golden. A Beast Mark, in the shape of the toad.

“You bonded with it?” Barclay asked. “Why would you do that?”

“I didn’t mean to! You think I’d want a weird toad that—”

“Croak!”

At that, the toad appeared on Tadg’s shoulder, though Barclay guessed Tadg hadn’t meant to summon it. Tadg screamed and fell into the puddle, soaking his clothes.