Page 104 of By the Orchid and the Owl
“Stop it,” Coen muttered against my ear. “Try not to think about it.”
“Easier to think about that thanthem,” I replied.
In the end, Dyonisia Reeve hadn’t joined her Mind Manipulators, but I did recognize one of them. I’d seen him strutting down Bascite Boulevard moments before Coen had ushered the twins and me inside: a mullet that split into braided strings down his back, a wide, constantly flexing jaw, rutted, light brown skin—he’d been one of the elites sitting next to Dyonisia during the Branding.
But whereas before he’d paled in comparison to her, now I couldn’t blink the image of him away. The way he’d marched, shoulders angled inward, leading the others down the path between houses… it was like a whispering presence followed his every movement.
“His name is Kitterfol Lexington,” Coen whispered, “and he’s probably the second most horrid thing on this island. Dyonisia loves him.”
“There’s talk that they share a bed,” Sasha said beside me.
“And also talk that they’re siblings,” Sylvie added.
“Well, which one is it?” I whispered back.
“Who knows?” I felt Sasha’s shrug in the darkness. “Maybe both.”
A creak of the bed as Sylvie elbowed her. “That’s disgusting, Sash.”
I mulled it over and thought back to something Garvis had said in the Isolator.We do this every time the Good Council decides to look into a surplus of power.Which sounded like it had happened more than once.
“You said earlier that there was a murder during a pentaball game a few years ago,” I whispered to Coen, though I knew Sasha and Sylvie were listening, too. “But has the Good Council ever come to investigate anything else?”
Coen hesitated. Sasha and Sylvie, however, twisted in bed.
“You haven’t told her?” Sasha hissed.
“Told me what?” I asked, shooting up.
Coen’s hand gently pulled me back down against him. He sighed.
“I haven’t told you that when I broke up with Kimber last dry season, she was so livid that she sort of—how do I put this?” He inhaled through his nose, pinching the bridge of it. “She killed every animal within a ten-mile radius. Just left a circle of carcasses in every direction around us. Nobody likes to mention it.”
Silence. My heartbeat stalled.
“What?” was all I could say.
“Kimber’s fury cracked and she told them all to die,” Coen said, his own voice cracking. “So they did. Birds and monkeys and butterflies just dropped dead.”
“That’s not possible,” I began, even though I suddenly wasn’t sure at all. “We cantalkto animals, not command them todie.”
“Your magic has barely scraped the surface as a first-year,” Sylvie said gently on the other side of Sasha. “But for the most part, you’re right. Kimber demonstrated exceptional magic that day. Too exceptional.”
Just as Fergus had demonstrated too-exceptional magic today.
Now Willa’s claim that Dyonisia had spiders spying on Coen all the time made perfect sense. They were probably spying on Kimber, too. But why hadn’t they taken her to Bascite Mountain?
“The Good Council came to investigate your breakup,” I said, trying to keep hold of the steadiness in my voice, “and—what? They found out what Kimber did and just left her alone?”
“More or less,” Coen said. “Lawful magic that’s gone beyond the scope of normal limitations catches their attention, but I believe they’re waiting to see if Kimber’s capable of doing it again. Hence why they’ve been keeping a close watch on her—and me—ever since. If they catch Fergus, they’ll probably do the same to him. And keep an extra eye on him until his Final Test.”
But we—Coen, Sasha, Sylvie, and I, and the other guys, too—wouldn’t get the same privilege if we were caught. Not if Dyonisia found out our blood came from beyond the dome.
The danger of our predicament suddenly crashed down on me, as if the ceiling had dropped low and pinned me to the bed.
“Okay,” Coen breathed. “They’re moving on to our house now. I need all of you to breathe deeply, relax your minds, and let me concentrate.”
For some reason, I’d thought the Good Council would simply cast around for guilty-sounding minds while we slept, maybe conduct an official investigation tomorrow morning based on what they found tonight. I hadn’t realized how precise it would be, house to house, person to person, their minds shooting through walls to invade every mind one by one, regardless if that mind was swimming through dreams or just as awake as we were.
