Page 162 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
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Steeler didn’t take off his shirt to investigate the official oath pressed upon his back. He only picked up Old Veracious at his feet and looked at the crew of faeries before him.
“Anyone who wants to help is welcome to come with us.”
He held out his free hand.
I was the first to grab hold of it. Then Garvis wrestled out of the grip of the faerie who still held him, hurrying forward until his warm hand found ours. Sasha and Sylvie followed suit, then Terrin. Dazmine knelt to pick up my bag for me, slung it over her shoulder, and reached out her hand.
Terrin opened his mouth at her, but she rolled her eyes and snapped, “Get over it. I’m coming.”
All around us, the rest of the crew was watching with parted mouths. The captain herself was swinging her gaze between Steeler and me with eyes that nearly bugged out of her skull.
I lowered my blockade long enough to understand: they were shocked Steeler wasn’t forcing them to fight now that he was their official commander. More than that, though, they wereshocked he’d finallybecometheir commander after all these years.
Most of them had known him as a boy.
Now, the ink on their skin chained them to his commands above the captain’s. And judging by the hatred clenching her jaw, the captain herself was well aware of that sudden change.
“We’re coming!” boomed a familiar voice.
I looked up to find Barberro and that same silver-haired faerie in Steeler’s memories ploughing through the crowd. They just barely managed to reach between the rest of our bodies to lay a finger on Steeler’s, Barberro’s figure looming over the rest of ours by three feet.
He smiled down at me. “Hello again, girl with curly hair.”
“Hello, little faerie man.”
Barberro boomed with laughter, but it was his mate—hisvigate—I found myself smashed up against, facing her for the first time in the flesh.
When Nara caught my eye, I could tell she knew exactly who I was.
“They have to brew for another twelve hours,” she whispered to me in that voice of softest satin, “but they can brew without me.”
The pills. We’d been so close to following through with the plan.
Maybe, if we survived this, we still could.
“Thank you,” I told her earnestly.
For coming with us right now, yes, but also for helping Steeler all these years behind the scenes. For helping me now. I hope my voice conveyed everything I meant in those two little words.
Nara nodded.
“Anyone else?” Steeler asked.
None of the other faeries on board so much as twitched forward. I tightened my grip on Steeler’s hand, and felt him squeeze back as the first tip of the sun broke the watery sheen of the horizon.
It was dawn.
It was time.
Darkness tore into us from every direction, the eight of us clinging to any part of Steeler we could find as he dragged us through space. The sensation would never stop my stomach from roiling when we landed, but this time I didn’t have time to gasp or retch.
Because when we landed, it was to find a world of smoke.
Flames ripped into the sky from every thatched rooftop in sight—and there were alotof thatched rooftops here. Hundreds of seaside cottages and huts had been built into the crags of the giant clifftop that made Hallow’s Perch: what would have once been a picturesque sight.
Now, it was filled with screams.
