Page 134 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
“W-what?” Jolting out of my reverie, I slipped his shirt over my head and relished the smell of black bamboo that floated over me. The fabric did, indeed, fall all the way to my knees, which shouldn’t have surprised me. I wasn’t exactly the tiniest girl in my sector, but Steeler himself always towered over me.
“For what you did out there for Garvis,” he clarified. “I haven’t seen him smile like that in ages—since long before we first arrived on this island.”
Finally, he turned around to face me, his fists uncurling as he took in the way my hair dripped over his shirt, something purely masculine lighting up his eyes with approval.
I forced out a shrug, still feeling the ache of my nipples against his shirt. “It was just a Mind Manipulating lesson.”
“Oh, no, Rayna.” He locked his gaze with mine. “It was the reason I will never find a mind as beautiful as yours—because all your thoughts come from your heart.”
I opened my mouth, but didn’t know how to respond… and suddenly, Dazmine was yelling my name from the kitchen before I could figure it out.
Both Steeler and I ran out of the room to find Dazmine beaming, wearing that same glittering malice I’d seen a few weeks ago in the jungle. She pointed past Felicity, locking her finger on Terrin.
“Thisguy just reminded me about his sector’s annual winter formal. It’d be the perfect way to get into the Element Wielder house, don’t you think?”
“I was just wondering if anybody had asked you,” Terrin muttered rather grumpily, which struck me as odd. Even if he’d wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to take Dazmine to a dance at the Esholian Institute. But I realized what Dazmine was implying half a second later.
Quinn couldn’t hide in her own home.
Steeler had stiffened beside me, and when I glanced at him, it was to find a mask sliding over his features. I wondered if he was thinking about the last time I’d been at a party, when I’d danced and kissed that Shape Shifter. Or maybe he just wished things were different, that he could ask me to go.
Either way, I looked at Dazmine and nodded.
“I’m in.”
If I had to keep playing the part of innocent Esholian student for a little while longer, I might as well go to the ball.
CHAPTER
40
The Element Wielder houses looked the same as they had last year.
Magic-induced skirts of snow frosted the edges of both alabaster mansions. Garlands bordered the widespread windows, where sheets of fire writhed freely within each double pane and fat snowflakes drifted down to the front steps before both sets of double doors.
Emelle and Lander had gone together, Cilia had run off to get ready with Mitzi, and Wren and Gileon had decided to skip it this year, so Dazmine and I approached the girls’ side together.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I muttered. “It might get ugly.”
Indeed, anytime I even tried to sayhito Quinn in the last year, it seemed to veer on the side of ugly. I couldn’t imagine anyone backing her into a corner and demanding she talk about her very obviously illicit activities.
Or…maybe not so illicit if Dyonisia knew about them, but still.
Dazmine didn’t even pause.
“No. I never liked Quinn even during the rare times Jenia had the three of us hang out together. I want to be there when she cries.”
Ruthless. Dazmine was ruthless, and maybe I needed a bigger dose of that for myself tonight.
I smoothed out my dress, a cardinal red flow of sequined lace with a sharp V-neck and dainty straps that revealed every inch of my brand—the one on my shoulder, at least. My hair itself was pulled back into a half knot, the rest of my curls spreading over the brand on my neck with their usual unruliness.
Dazmine herself wore her braids up in an elaborate swirl, highlighting the bronze column of her neck. I had zero doubts that in her strapless mermaid dress, she would attract a lot of attention inside. Attention she needed.
Quinn had never bowed to small or meek orless than, after all.
I knocked.
An Element Wielder answered the door without looking at us, her head still thrown back over her shoulder as she laughed at someone behind her.
