Page 180 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
Thankyou, Rayna. You were right. If Dyonisia hadn’t watched me die, she would have turned Hallow’s Perch upside down in search of me. Your plan—and Emelle and Lander—saved my home village.
At that moment, the carriage jostled as the wheels touched down right before the Testing Center. I could feel the weight of that one name neither of us had uttered yet. Coen’s grief sunk into my own stomach like stones—or maybe that was my own, tugging me down into a place that was both sorrowful and… angry.
Out of everyone who deserved such a swift and brutal death, it shouldn’t have been Garvis.
Dyonisia had no idea what I was thinking, though, as I climbed out of the carriage. Her lips merely puckered with distaste, once again, at all the blood and grime that had hardened on the silk of my tattered dress.
“Try lemon juice, child,” she said, finally waving me away. “I’ve found that gets rid of the worst of stains.”
I didn’t move from my frozen position until her carriage had dissolved into the misty night high above my head.
When I had made it back to Bascite Boulevard, a feline shape was waiting for me where the moonbeam touched the shadows in the space between the Mind Manipulator and Wild Whisperer mansions.
Lights pulsed from every house on Bascite Boulevard. Music poured from open windows. Everyone was celebrating the postponement of the second quarterly test. I was pretty sure I even heard Rodhi’s boisterous laugh echoing from one of the houses—and good for him. I made a mental note to thank him later for setting his spiders on the Testing Center.
“You’re alive,” Jagaros said.
“Well, hello to you, too.”
I had to admit, part of me felt… disappointed at the sight of all his muscle and power just sitting on its haunches here at the Institute. Maybe if Jagaros had joined in our fight, Garvis would still be…
The dark, fathomless presence in my mind flinched, and I stopped those thoughts right in their tracks.
Jagaros huffed.
“I made an oath a long time ago that I would not interfere in the Good Council’s… projects. At least not directly. I couldn’t go near Hallow’s Perch at the time of the attacks any more than I could chew off my own head.And trust me, I wanted to chew off my own head when I heard that you were there and I could not help you.”
Oaths. I hated oaths. Jagaros had never sounded so bitter, and suddenly, his black stripes looked like the inky bars of a jailcell tattooed right over his fur, just like Coen’s was tattooed on his back.
“You can still help,” I whispered. “There’s a bunch of exiled ones in the bunker of Hallow’s Perch. They’re safe for now, but…”
When Dyonisia caught wind that her exiled ones were alive and useless, shewouldhunt them down—and punish all of those people in the bunker for keeping them. Just as Kimber had told Quinn so long ago, a hiding place was exactly what they all needed.
Jagaros’s tail stilled. His eyes narrowed into slivers.
“You wish to aid the ones who have harmed you in the past?”
I didn’t hesitate before I nodded.
Despite how much I still disliked Kimber and Jenia, despite how those monsters had murdered villagers and injured Barberro… it was Dyonisia who had instilled the violence in them. Like Kimber had said, she’d fed into their hatred to play them like pawns in a game they didn’t even know they were in.
They deserved a space to heal and figure out who they were without that kind of manipulation. Away from brands and chains.
“That is what I wish.”
“Very well, then.I know of a place on the island where the Good Council cannot tread. Now that the official attack is over, I will go to Hallow’s Perch to fetch the exiled ones and take them there.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Thank you, Jagaros.”
In response, he did something he never had before. Rather than demandIpet him, he came up to me and nuzzled the side of his head against my neck, a deep rumble growing in his throat.
“Stay cautious. Stay curious. Stay clever.”
Just as he was crouching to bound off, I touched his back.
“Wait. I got all my memories back and now I can see them more clearly. You’ve been in search of a map of the world, haven’t you?”
