Page 46 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
I accepted mine with a mumbled thanks and waited until the monkey had deposited drinks to the others before continuing.
“The magic chooses which shape it’ll take when it merges with our blood.”Thatquote had come directly from Mr. Conine on my first official day at the Institute. “The magic’s already chosen to make me a Wild Whisperer. I can’t become a Mind Manipulator.”
“Yes, you can,” Steeler said simply.
“The Good Council—” I started.
“The Good Council is lying about that, as they do about many things.” His grip tightened on his mug, the veins in his hands bulging with the movement. “The Branding activation isnotrandom, and the magic doesn’t choose which form it’ll take in your blood—theydo.”
I had just started to take a sip of my tea, but now I tried not to splutter against the scalding pain of it against my lips.
“Explain.”
Steeler clucked his tongue, a hint of humor playing in his eyes.
“So demanding, per usual.” A pause, during which he took a sip of his own. “It might be… hard to take in.”
“Try me.”
But it was Terrin who leaned forward in his armchair to my left, a competitive glint in his eyes, and said, “Oh, I’ve got this one, brother.”
He turned that glint onto me, but I had a feeling that he was just sparing Steeler from having to say something hard.
“Okay, Rayna, so you know how bascite comes from the blood of a mature faerie, right?”
“Yeah?” I tried not to glance at Steeler.
“Well, that’s technically true. But the Good Council didn’t just happen to find all that faerie metal at the top of the highest Esholian peak. They…” Here Terrin scratched his beard with his mug-free hand. “They kidnapped the faeries and have kept them locked up on Bascite Mountain for hundreds of years now. Forcing them to give away the magic in their bloodstream again and again every year.”
Now my mug slipped from my grasp. Hot tea splashed forward between Steeler and me, and I retreated a few steps until my ass hit the arm of my chair.
“They’re… they’re alive? The faeries?”
Last year, Mr. Fenway had told us that bascite came from faerie blood, yes, but he’d described it as the last remnants of a long-decomposed pile of corpses. Which was morbid enough.
To think that the bascite came fromlivingfaeries…
“Only five of them,” Steeler clarified, clearing his throat. “It’s true that there used to be a whole indigenous clan of faeries on the island before Dyonisia Reeve arrived to… colonize it.” His lips pulled up in distaste at that. “But we don’t know where that clan of faeries disappeared to. The five she is holding prisoner, on the other hand—they are the original Good Council of the court of Sorronia.” When I furrowed my brows, he added, “The faerie continent all of us are from.”
I didn’t dare ask if I was included in that. I still couldn’t wrap any part of my head around the idea thatImight be the same kind of monsterhewas. That one day, I might grow fangs, too.
But never mind any of that right now. What Steeler was telling me—that the icy-eyed woman who had given me the sheath still strapped to my thigh… thatshewas keeping kidnapped faeries from another continent like some kind of cattle, milking their magic every year to give more power to her own people…
“So there are five faeries locked away up there,” I said slowly, “each with one of the five magics.”
Steeler nodded. “Magics are like fingerprints—completely unique for each individual. Nobody was ever meant to have the same powers, but Dyonisia found a way to harvest them, strengthen them, clone them, and give the same ones to her own people. Not randomly, but of her own choosing. She even sends files to Mr. Gleekle detailing every student’s information and power to be given.”
For some reason, I looked at the twins for confirmation, forgetting, for a moment, that they were anything other than fellow women.
Sylvie nodded. Sasha said in a low voice, “Wedidn’t even know all this until we got back to the main ship. The faerie fleet is here to get the blood that is rightfully theirs—the originalGood Council—back…” She glanced at Steeler. “When the time is right.”
I followed her glance and felt my eyebrows furrow. Something didn’t add up. One disjointed piece failed to fit in with the rest of it.
“You’re lying,” I said to him. “You have to be. If you really wanted to get your original Good Council out of that prison, you would’ve just used your new power to Walk right in there, grab them, and set them free.”
Steeler cocked his head at me.
“You’re right, I would have. Unfortunately, my power won’t let me access the prison. It’s like a giant rectangular blind spot—I can’t get in no matter how hard I try to dig through.”
