Page 142 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
“Dazmine,” I started to whisper, but it was like she didn’t hear me.
The pirates can’t break into the prison, so we need someone to let us in—someone from the inside.
“Dazmine…”
If we could just make contact with an elite, turn them into a double agent—
“Dazmine! Shut your thoughts down right now.”
I felt something in the air around us, like another mind was searching. Reaching. Probing. Maybe Steeler was just listening in on our mental conversation, but I hadn’t felt his dark, fathomless energy since I’d told him to go earlier. This… this felt foreign.
Yet shockingly familiar.
Horrified, I dove into Dazmine’s mind, landing on a surface that rolled with dry, unforgiving waves of sand—just as anotherfigure evaporated, like a shimmer of heat, right near her consciousness.
A wormy figure I’d recognize even in my deepest nightmares.
Lexington.
CHAPTER
42
“Steeler,” I gasped out loud.
Within two of my crashing heartbeats, the solid wall of his body materialized between Dazmine and me.
“What happened?”
It only took him half a second to absorb all the information swimming behind my eyes. Half a second for him to understand exactly what I’d learned in Quinn’s mind and what I’d just seen in Dazmine’s.
Did Lexington seeyou?he asked urgently.Did he get into your mind or see that you were in Dazmine’s?
No.I was confident about that. My blockade had been sliced open to listen in on Quinn’s thoughts, but I’d never felt or seen anyone so much as brush up against it.
Steeler’s shoulders relaxed an infinitesimal amount, but he still stood like a statue carved of impenetrable marble.Did he go through Dazmine’s gate?
No. I don’t think so. He stopped right near her consciousness, as if he was just listening to what she wasthinking at that exact moment. Which was that she wanted to get someone from the inside of the prison to let the pirates in. Shit,I tacked on as the enormity of that crashed through me.
I had no idea why Lexington had been in Dazmine’s mind, of all people’s, but there was no doubt in mine that even if he wasn’t on campus, he’d be closing in on us soon after hearing all that.
How far out do you think he is?I asked desperately.
Steeler shook his head.
If he was able to get into her head, it means he’s somewhere within Mind Manipulating range. Knowing him and how far he can reach with his power, I’m willing to bet that’s a good five- to ten-mile radius, but…
He didn’t have to finish that thought for me to connect each painstaking dot. Dazmine wasn’t safe here at the Esholian Institute anymore. She probably wasn’t even safe at the lighthouse without Walking powers of her own or an ability to flee if Lexington ever found out about that secret haven.
Steeler’s jaw tightened, confirming my fear without a word.
“If neither of you tell me what’s going on in the next five seconds,” Dazmine started, “I’m going to call all the rats out of the walls and have them nibble your—”
“The Good Council knows you know too much,” I said urgently, hardly able to bear the way her scowl flashed into alarm. “And they’re coming for you now. Steeler is going to have to take you away… maybe for good. I’m sorry, Dazmine. I’m so, so sorry, I—”
I’d been so focused on maintaining my own blockade that I hadn’t even thought about trying to protect Dazmine’s mind. This wasexactlywhat Steeler had tried to prevent from happening to me by keeping sensitive information out of my head until I could learn to defend myself.
“No,” Dazmine interrupted before I could say more.
