Page 73 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
Your job today is to find a black mamba and trick them into leaving the Esholian Institute,Mr. Conine said.
You bitch!the sluggish boy wailed in the distance.You ruined me! You hurt me! I’m going to tell the Good Council!
I felt Kitterfol Lexington pause at that one, amused and smug—just as I’d hoped. With him so thoroughly distracted, he didn’t notice any holes in any of the memories: no Dazmine, no Jagaros, no Walking. No lighthouse or Felicity or secret Branding. No Steeler.
Until he came to our reenactment, of course.
Then, the creak of me opening that abandoned classroom door on Sunday night and the stomp of my footsteps as I stalked toward him with my knife on Monday morning blendedinto one, as if nothing between those two moments had ever happened.
Answer my questions, or I’ll mutilate your magic, I said.What is this?I could practically see myself reaching forward with my free hand and digging in his front shirt pocket to bring out the pill.What does it do to me every week? Why do you make me take it?
And then, after he’d forced me to swallow it, Lexington heard Steeler say,It’s a new stimulator I came up with. To control you from afar. To make you want me even when you’re the only damned woman who’s never wanted me before… From the moment it kicks in until the moment it fades, you will think of me.
Among those other things that I refused to let get to me again.
As soon as Lexington withdrew himself from my mind, the mists dissolved. The background film of reality snapped back into place.
“Youhaveto get one of those pills for me, girl.”
I tried not to smirk at the way his eyes were popping. How his reaction played right into my hands.
Lifting my fork, I popped a square of toast into my mouth and chewed slowly, pretending to savor it.
Lexington watched me, veins straining beneath the skin of his forehead. “You better not be mocking—”
I swallowed and smacked my lips.
“What do you want me to do, sir? Puke up my next pill and try to give you its vomity remains? Or…” I dared to lean forward onto my elbows, even though every ounce of me wanted to cringe away. “Do you want me to find Steeler’s entire stash of pills, figure out how they’re made, and steal a whole supply of them for you?”
Lexington’s eyes flashed with surprise, and I knew I almost had him snared. All I had to do was plough on.
“I know I won’t be able to think straight while the pills are in my system, but you heard Steeler in the memory,” I said. “The effects eventually fade. So if I can just get close enough to him, earn his trust back, then I can strike right between the fading and the next dose when my head clears.”
I could see the realization spread across Lexington’s pocked face. That for the first time since Dyonisia’s initial meeting with me in the Testing Center, he might need me for his own private gain rather than hers.
He leaned back and stroked the ball of his throat.
“The pills work, then? You truly feel drawn to Coen Steeler when they’re active in your system? Never mind.” He waved a hand. “I can see it etched all over your barren little mind.”
I forced my mouth to smile even when it wanted to snarl.
“Yes. But I won’t be able to get close enough to him to steal those pills for you unless you give me space for a while. Let me pretend to… submit. To stop fighting him every second. Becausethatcoupled with your weekly visits are keeping him dancing just out of reach.” I stabbed my fork into my toast. “So I don’t care what you tell Dyonisia Reeve—whether you pretend to keep checking up on me or not—if you want those pills, you need to. Leave. Me.Alone.”
Once again, Lexington’s monstrous form dropped into my mind with that oily precision, until I found myself face-to-face with his giant worm. Staring at him from both within my mind and outside it.
Are you lying to me?the worm asked from a gaping mouth bursting with sharp teeth: Lexington’s voice in my head, personified.
I froze, feeling the truth bubble in my mental mouth, feeling the shadow of a dark, fathomless energy hover as if prepared to pounce down on the invasion in my mind. Then—
No,I’m not,I said clearly.
Well, damn. I guess Icouldlie now that I was a Mind Manipulator of my own.
Lexington withdrew again. I blinked at him as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened—as if he’d simply demanded the truth from an innocent Wild Whisperer’s head and nothing more.
“Get me those pills, girl,” he said finally, standing with a swish of his cloak and a tap of his finger against his brand, “and I’ll get you a seat on the Good Council… if you pass your Final Test, that is.”
I watched him go, the short burst of elation at my success quickly washed away by the realization of what he’d just offered me at the end of all this.
