Page 178 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
He tried to order the crows back, but they didn’t pay him any mind. In the commotion, I bit down on my lip until I tasted blood, clamping down on the smile slowly rising within me.
Because that wasn’t Coen’s true body, but a Shifted replica of it… and now Dyonisia would never know. She’d never know that even as the crows ate away at that replica, the morphed flesh was already withering back into its original form: rubble and grit and ash.
I chanced a half glance at the two shadows loitering in that alleyway behind the carriage—Emelle and Lander.
Emelle and Lander had come to save me. To saveus.
I had whispered my plan into Felicity’s mind right before we’d dropped her off at the Institute. Until ten minutes ago, Coen hadn’t had any idea that I’d asked her to relay my whole story, along with my plan, to Emelle, who could relay it to Lander.
For I’d known that Dyonisia wouldn’t trust me completely until she saw me pierce Coen’s heart. And Lander was the only Shape ShifterItrusted to help me fake his death without turning me in.
I don’t know which of their powers they’d used to get here in time—there was a variety of Wild Whispering or Shape Shifting ways to travel across the island—but I did know that Lander had used his power to make a clone of the male he’d seen me with as best as he could.
That clone had been warping slightly around the edges, and those eyes had been Lander’s warm brown color rather than the smoky quartz of Coen’s real gaze, but other than that…
Well, Dyonisia had been fooled, at least.
Even the blood that had coated my hand had felt real.
Blood that had turned back into ash and dirt on my hands.
Thank you,I shot into that alleyway.Thank you so much. I didn’t want to tangle you up in all of this, but…
Although I sensed Lander was panting and sweating with the effort it had taken him to Shift something so small into something so significant, neither of their minds so much as flinched with shock at the sound of my voice in their heads.
I’d asked Felicity to tell my best friendeverything, which meant both Emelle and Lander now knew about more than just Coen. They knew I was half-faerie. That Dyonisia was my aunt by blood. That I had a second brand hidden beneath my matted and tangled hair.
And their minds were filled with nothing but love and pride as Emelle thought back,We knew you were hiding something this whole time, Rayna. When that monkey of yours found me, it was honestly a relief for us to be able to understand. To be there for you.
Lander’s mind was straining with exertion, and I could practically see the sweat streaming down his forehead as he maintained the bones of his creation. But he still managed to think,Thank you for letting us in, Rayna. It means a lot to Melle… and to me.
My throat stung. I couldn’t do it in real life, but I threw them both a mental image of me wrapping my arms around their necks and squeezing tight, picking up on more subtle pieces of knowledge when I did so. Felicity was safe in my room with Willa. Rodhi had set his spiders on the Testing Center during the beginning of the second quarterly test—ensuring that nobody had noticed when Lander and Emelle had slipped away.
I’d forgotten about the second quarterly test. Forgotten how dangerous it would have been for them—for all of us—if we hadn’t showed up. Mrs. Smetlar, especially, would have relished reporting us to the same female who was currently shrieking at the crows as they continued to tear apart the replica of Coen.
As if Emelle could sense my guilt seeping into her mind, she added warmly,I noticed, you know.
Noticed what?
That you filled my birdfeeder for me when I couldn’t. You might not have been able to give much of yourself to anyone this year, but you gave me that.She paused.I knew it was all you could manage. And it was enough.
My eyes were watering by the time the crows finally picked their way to the ground, leaving nothing behind besides a Shifted skeleton.
Dyonisia sniffed at what she believed to be Coen’s bones.
“Who knows where they’re going to shit out all of that bascite I could have studied. Good God, I hate birds.”
Now I was extra glad I’d had the birds demolish the evidence of how I’d tricked her. When Dyonisia had sensed a Mind Manipulator in addition to a Wild Whisperer in her web, she hadn’t realized she’d just been sensingme: Coen’s power that ran in my blood. My ruse would have been over if she’d realized that the replica had no bascite at all.
As it was, she merely sighed at me.
“Come, child. Let me take you back to the Esholian Institute—maybe you will stay there like you’re supposed to now that you know what I can do to misbehavers.”
As if to prove just what she could do, she snapped her fingers.
Her antipower lunged back down, devouring Lexington’s remains.
Which promptly disintegrated into nothing more than dust.
