Page 144 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
By the way his mouth trembled with the urge to scream… oh, heknew. He knew Dazmine was gone, but didn’t knowhow.
I pushed my pride, my deep appreciation for Steeler’s innate power, back, back, back into the distant horizon of my mind. No way was I letting the Good Council anywhere near my true feelings for him.
Lexington turned to his other elites and gave a significant nod.
They streamed past everyone, rushing deeper into the Element Wielder mansion and up the stairs as if Dazmine might still be hiding somewhere inside. Lexington himself stayed stock-still, breathing heavily as he surveyed the halted party.
“Where is she?” he whispered.
Nobody answered.
“WHERE IS SHE?” he snapped, and lunged for the nearest student.
It was a girl in a neon two-piece. She screamed, but nobody dared step forward to help her as Lexington grabbed her by thearms and shook her back and forth, evaluating her mind and whether she had any relation to Dazmine in one smooth sweep.
The fact that he hadn’t immediately landed his sights on me meant he didn’t know I’d been with her tonight. If he’d gone past Dazmine’s gate and rifled through her most recent memories back in that hallway, he would have seen our alliance and the lighthouse… but he must have felt confident he’d be able to pick her brain apart piece by piece in person, so he’d withdrawn with a false sense of victory.
Good.
As Lexington moved to the next person with unnerving swiftness, I used the precious time I had to scour the room for signs of Rodhi—and found him near the drinking fountain on the other end of the room, surrounded by a variety of friends from other sectors.
Lexington was moving closer to his group with a rising frenzy. This was nothing like the cool, smooth contemplation he had used to investigate Mr. Fenway’s death last year, but something wild bordering on mad. It reminded me of how I’d felt when I’d first been Branded with Mind Manipulating and heard the outpour of everyone’s thoughts at once. His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he turned from person to person and found no connection to Dazmine, no connection to Dazmine, no connection to Dazmine.
Because Dazmine had had no friends besides Jenia.
Dazmine had been a loner after Jenia.
Dazmine was just Jenia’s ex-sidekick who’d fallen into everyone’s periphery after her exile.
I pushed all of those thoughts out into the open as hard as I could.
As if he’d heard it, Lexington’s eyes snapped toward me.
Exactly what I’d wanted. Because as much as I’d forced bravado into my voice when I’d told Steeler I could protectRodhi, he was right. Icouldn’tprotect him from the most advanced Mind Manipulator on the Good Council. Not mentally.
Lexington changed course, pivoting toward me instead. The crowd parted, cutting him a straight path to where I tried not to tremble.
I didn’t even realize Emelle was clinging to my arm until I felt her nails pierce my skin like little anchors. Anchors I appreciated as Lexington’s snarl sent drops of spit flying into my face.
“What a happy little coincidence! Just the girl I’ve been meaning to have a nice, long chat with,andyou’re Ms. Temperton’s roommate.”
He grabbed me by the sleeve and dragged me away from Emelle.
“Rayna!” she cried, reaching after me.
Lexington must have shot a command into her mind, because the next second she fell back into Lander again with a blank expression slapped over her face.
I trotted alongside Lexington until he’d pushed me up against the empty stairwell around the corner, where nobody could hear us.
Take out your knife and press it against your heart.
His command was more sudden than I anticipated. For the first time, I could actuallyfeelthe strings of it try to latch onto my consciousness.
Shaking, I yanked my mother’s knife from its sheath and flipped it until the curved point rested just over my left breast, dimpling my skin.
“Good, good,” Lexington mused.
I expected him to worm into my mind like he always used to, but he paused to observe me with his lip curled in disgust.
