Page 62 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
A performance. This was all just a performance. Because what Lexington wanted most, I was sure, was a way to force Dyonisia to love him back. To control the most powerful being on this island who seemed immune to the normal influences of the five magics. Steeler wasn’t truly talking to me this way right now. It was an act.
But I still felt a deep, curling shock when Steeler strained against the sundew stalks like he wanted to tackle me to the ground.
“A stimulator? Is that so?” I forced myself to ask.
Steeler nodded. “From the moment it kicks in until the moment it fades, you will think of me. And every time you think of me, you’ll crave the feel of my body against yours.”
As if to stop myself from leaning in, I pressed my blade harder against his shoulder, but he didn’t even wince.
“And every time youdofeel my body pressed against yours,” he continued, the words slow and steady, as if he wanted to savorthem on his tongue, “your legs will beg you to let them spread for me.”
No, no, no. They were getting to me, those words. A low, simmering sort of fire seemed to be building in my core. I—
“And every time you spread your legs, Rayna, even if you’re alone in your room trying to pleasure yourself, it’ll bemycock you think of.Mycock you want buried so deep inside you that you’ll never be able to escape. Do you understand? Say you understand.”
“I understand,” I gasped.
I could have sworn Steeler’s nostrils flared, just for a second, as his eyes swept down my body and back up in a blink. Then—
“Okay, that should do it. You can ease up on the knife now.”
I stared at him, trying to clamp my legs together without him noticing, anything to smother the heat that made me want to slide a finger through the slit in my dress and give pressure to the ache.
“Drey?”
“Oh, right.”
I removed my knife from his shoulder and stepped back, surveying him still on his knees with his arms spread. I had class in twenty minutes, and he should be Walking back to the lighthouse by now, but suddenly I was straining to keep certain images from flashing through my mind: me, unbuttoning Steeler’s pants, rediscovering just how big he really was underneath…
“How long?” I blurted in an attempt to distract my mind from the filthy direction it was heading. “How long do full-blooded faeries typically live for?”
Steeler’s nostrils flared again, and his pupils were spreading as his eyes grazed down me again. “More than a thousand years.”
“And… half-faeries?”
I’d purposely avoided thinking about the logistics of my supposed faerie heritage, but it was obvious that Fabian was human, that it would have had to be my mysterious, unknown mother who’d been one…
“It depends on the specific percentage, but… anywhere from six to seven hundred, I’d say.” Steeler was still on his knees, still strung up, still entangled by growling plants leaching onto him, but he didn’t look like he’d rather be anywhere else as he cocked his head and whispered, “Any more questions, little hurricane?”
Oh, yes, a million of them. But I knew my Mind Manipulating wasn’t strong enough to hide the most earth-shattering answers from Lexington yet, so I’d have to choose carefully. Pick the questions that would matter the least to anyone but me.
“Why do you call me that?”
“What?
“Little hurricane.”
Something seemed to be happening to his body now—a kind of tense quivering, as if he trulydidhave to restrain himself from ripping through his makeshift chains and pouncing on me.
“Because of what you do to me… among other reasons.”
I stiffened and looked away, suddenly hearing the mist in my mind replaying certain scenes.
You took a midnight swim with that lover of yours,the octopus said with his tentacles.
You were just one of his oblivious pets that he liked to use and abuse,Lexington said with his oily smile.
I made a careless mistake in letting Kitterfol Lexington keep that particular memory,Steeler said with his mental voice.Not a day goes by where I don’t curse myself for forgetting he had it.
