Page 15 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
And atthatthought, it occurred to me: I knew next to nothing about the Manipulating art itself. Not that Iwas supposed to seek out information about other sectors, necessarily… but if I was going to trap and stab Steeler tonight, shouldn’t I find out everything I could about the way his magic worked?
The next inductee’s branding caused a storm to surge overhead, splattering the entire arena with a torrent of water until the other Element Wielders calmed it with upraised hands.
“By the orchid and the owl,” Wren cursed, wiping water from her eyes with the back of her arm.
We protect and care, this we swear, by the orchid and the owl.I knew my sector’s motto by heart, but it was time to learn Steeler’s motto, too.
After the last person was branded, everyone began running toward their houses just like last year.It was easy to slip away from Emelle and the others in the chaos. Easy to follow the Mind Manipulators to their mansions of daunting marble pillars, where I snuck into the alleyway between the boys’ houses and pressed my back against the wall next to one of the many windows.
Myhouse would be all chatter and screeching and excitement right now, but through that nearby windowpane, all I heard was…
Moaning. And groaning. And… yep—that was the sound of someone throwing up.
Oh, gross.
I prayed Wilder was holding himself together, at least for the sake of his own dignity. Waving away a few lacewings, I willed my mind to calm, to not give away its location to any of the older Mind Manipulators on the other side of the wall, who would be busy gathering the newly-inducted and welcoming them to their new sector.
Voices rumbled from inside, soothing and so unlike the crisp, matter-of-fact way Kimber Leake had spoken to my house a yearago. I definitely wouldn’t be able to make out what they were saying, unless…
“Hey,” I whispered out into the muggy darkness. The sound of a thousand different chirping insect conversations stopped abruptly. “Any spiders around here?”
Nothing answered except a mosquito who whined in my ear, “No spiders! Just me! And my sisters! And brothers! And you!”
No spiders around? Weird. I massaged my temples for a moment, and was just pushing myself off the Mind Manipulator wall, ready to slip back into my own house, when a low, dark chuckle bloomed in the shadows of the alleyway.
“Trying to eavesdrop on other sectors, are we?”
I whirled to face it.
And there he was, in the flesh and blood. Not standing over me while I slept, but leaning against the wall of his old house, merely ten paces away, as if he’d been there all along.
Dark brown hair. Rich, tan skin. A smile that curved his mouth into something wickedly beautiful.
“Hello again, little hurricane,” Coen Steeler said.
CHAPTER
7
In the space of half a heartbeat, I plunged my hand through the slit of my dress, yanked out the crescent knife, and threw it.
I might not have been the best at hitting a specific spot yet, but I could have sworn the blade was going to sticksomewhere—in his neck, in his stomach, in the broad planes of his chest. If I could nick him now, I’d have a chance at getting close enough to that brand on his shoulder.
But my knife just clattered to the alleyway’s weed-cracked ground. Right where Steeler had been standing a breath ago.
“What the—?”
I spun around to find him on the other end of the alley, where he was crossing his muscled arms. Somehow, he’d moved around me during that span of time it had taken me to blink.
A Mind Manipulating trick. It had to be some kind of advanced Mind Manipulating trick. My heart a raging tempest in my throat, I reached for one of the smaller, slimmer knives…
To find that Steeler had moved again. Closer.
He eyed my knife with interest.
“That’snew.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
