Page 158 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
Spiders. Streams and streams of spiders of various sizes and shapes came scuttling up to my feet, and I backed into Steeler in alarm.
I hadn’t seen this many spiders in ages. Had Rodhi sent them? Had something happened to him?
“What…?”
“We come on behalf of the Good Council,”the spiders said in unison, the overlap of their words and thoughts like anavalanche of fingernails tapping against glass, and my heart plummeted.
If Dyonisia had made one of her Wild Whisperers send them, then she knew about the lighthouse.
She knew where we were.
I tried to keep fear out of my voice, keeping my blockade down so that Steeler could use the flow of my thoughts as a translation.
“And what message do you bring?”
I could have sworn the spiders smiled, revealing all their little fangs dripping with venom.
“That Hallow’s Perch will be attacked at dawn.”
CHAPTER
46
Dread swamped me as Steeler and I exchanged panicked glances.
You wouldn’t care about all the other traitors he grew up with in Hallow’s Perch? Lexington had asked me back at the Element Wielder ball. I’d thought he’d been talking about Terrin, Garvis, and the twins, but now I knew deep in my gut…
The Good Council must be behind the attacks on their own people, and Lexington was about to destroy Steeler’s entire home village.
Just to see if I’d come running.
Just to see if I truly cared.
“How did you find us?” I asked the spiders as a trembling rage blossomed beneath the lids of my eyes. “Have you known about the lighthouse the whole time?”
“No,” the spiders said in that scraping discordance. “When Kitterfol Lexington was last in your mind, he caught you thinking about this place and had a Wild Whisperer send us here.”
Shit. I hadn’t kept control over my thoughts at the Element Wielder ball after all. I’d let them slip, and now this meeting place, this safe haven… it was compromised.
“Leave us,” I snapped with tears blurring my vision. Steeler had gone completely still behind me, and I half-thought I’d have to stomp on the spiders by myself to get rid of them.
To my surprise, they all scuttled back toward the door immediately, disappearing beneath the cracks—to get inside the walls of the lighthouse or to return to the storm outside, I didn’t know.
I lurched toward my bag and threw on one of my spare dresses as quickly as I could, clipping my sheath back around my thigh. When I straightened, Steeler was still stuck in the same position as before, still naked, still staring at where the spiders had disappeared.
“Steeler,” I said, “you have to get dressed. We can’t stay here anymore—the Good Council knows about this place.”
I bit back a sob at the sight of those still-flickering candles Felicity had made, at the mess in the kitchen and the home she had finally felt like she could be herself in. The monkey would be devastated when we woke her up to tell her the news, but it was better that we move her somewhere safe.
“Steeler?”
His head jerked up, and I saw that his eyes… they had gone wholly dark. Darker than their usual smoky quartz.
He cleared his throat. “You’re right. Do you think you and Felicity would be safe if I brought you back to the Institute?”
“Meand Felicity?” I stepped toward him. “No, Steeler. You’re not running to Hallow’s Perch all by yourself.”
He blinked at me.
