Page 146 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
Did you hear what Lexington said about your friends?
Steeler’s growl returned, nearly vibrating in my own chest.Yes. But there’s no way he could get to them while they’re on the ship. Even twenty faeries would be enough to best the entire Good Council. He was just gauging your reaction, Rayna. And you did so, so brilliantly.
The warmth of his pride crashed straight through me, sending my blood thrumming through my veins.
I tried to hide it by poking my head around the corner to survey the state of the foyer.
Lexington had vanished, but everyone still stood in frozen little groups, shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably and murmuring in low voices, the musical instruments suspended by a shelf of stagnant air overhead. Emelle was the only one moving through the crowd, her eyes scurrying around the room as Lander hurried after her.
“Hey.” I popped out and met her halfway.
“Rayna?” Her gaze drifted down to the pinprick on my chest, and the worry on her face deepened. “What was that about? Why did Kitterfol Lexington haul you off?”
I made myself give a confused shake of my head. “I guess he just thought I knew where Dazmine went since I was the last person to have seen her.” When Emelle’s eyes sharpened, I added, “We showed up at the ball around the same time, but I don’t know where she went.”
It was my first official lie to Emelle, and even though I’d just witnessed firsthand what would await her if I gave away the truth, the guilt in my stomach… it only dug its claws deeper into me.
Lander scratched his head. “What do you think Dazmine could havedoneto get this kind of search party?”
“Any number of things,” I muttered.
My attention skidded over their heads to connect with Rodhi, still mingling with that same group of friends across the room. He raised his glass to me in a silent toast and drained it in two thick chugs.
I smiled back.You’re welcome.
I’d almost let my shoulders relax when a high-pitched voice pushed into the foyer and all the tension radiated back into the room.
It wasn’t an elite this time. It was Cilia, closely followed by Mitzi, Norman, and Pierson. Her frantic gaze snagged on Emelle and me and she came running, hiking up her bright pink dress.
“They’ve trashed our damn room!” she wailed. “Our beds, our drawers, everything!” She sank to her knees and buried her face into her hands. “My favorite pillow is ripped toshreds.”
Emelle and I found each other’s looks of horror.
I didn’t give a damn about my pillows. But if a bunch of elites had torn through everything that lived in our room…
I was already running at the thought of a little gray mouse.
CHAPTER
43
Itore down Bascite Boulevard, Emelle and the others right behind me.
A deep fog was gathering between the mansions, slathering me in a sticky second skin that seemed to hold me back. My legs and lungs burned by the time I’d raced upstairs and barged into our room to face the chaotic mess the Good Council had left behind.
Dazmine’s corner of the room was the worst. Her bed was in absolute splinters, as if the elites had thought she might be hiding clues about her whereabouts in the frame itself. Her dresser was knocked over and cracked down the middle, her bags were torn apart at the seams, and every pot or bowl or mirror around her space had been shattered and now laid in fragments on the floor.
The rest of our spaces weren’t much better. My pillow was ripped wide open like Cilia’s, leaving an array of feathers spread everywhere like the softest snow. My mattress had been upturned. Even my drawers were emptied, my dresses,toiletries, and spare pens and bottles scattered unceremoniously across the floor.
I couldn’t even feel relieved that I’d already removed the handful of little black pearls weeks ago. Not when dread sunk into me at the ringing silence their search had left in its wake.
“Willa?” I called, racing forward to check under the bed, in the corners of the wall, under each overturned piece of furniture.
Footsteps thumped into the room behind me. I heard Emelle’s soft gasp of alarm and Lander’s curse under his breath, but my eyes had gone blurry as my fingers scrabbled to lift everything I could find.
“Willa,” I called again. “Are you okay?”
More footsteps joined Emelle and Lander behind me… just as a perturbed, high-pitched voice squeaked from a crack in the wall.
