Page 141 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
I wanted to dig deeper, but a distant, outward part of me recognized the sounds of a conversation ending in the real world.
Without Dazmine to keep her distracted… I couldn’t risk Quinn sensing my presence. I ripped myself out of her mind just as she was opening her door again.
“…so I don’t needyouto tell me how to live my life,” she was practically shrieking, and that pale, cropped hair of hers crackled with living flames.
Dazmine opened her mouth to call her back, but I shot a single, shaking thought into her mind:let her go.
Sneering, Quinn slipped back into her room, managing to slam the door behind her even though she’d only opened it a crack. From behind it, I could hear a deep, muffled voice, and Quinn answering, “Nothing. Just a girl I used to hang out with every so often…” before her voice faded, too.
I yanked Dazmine down the hall until we’d rounded a corner.
“What…?” she started to ask.
I shook my head at her and tapped my head.
I got a lot of information,I sent into her mind,but I don’t want to say any of it out loud.
Even though the hallway was empty for now, I could still hear music drifting up from the bottom floor. Distant laughs and groans and screams still melted through the walls of this place. It was better to assume anyone could be listening.
Dazmine cranked up an eyebrow.And?
And I think Mr. Gleekle’s secret Branding is a part of the Good Council system, I said, still filled with shock at all those pieces I’d picked up in Quinn’s mind.They’re picking out students who demonstrate superiority in some way and giving them a second brand—then testing them throughout their remainder at the Institute. If they learn to control two powers, they get recruited to the Good Council. If they can’t control the two powers—if they descend into madness like Jenia did—they’re brought up to that prison just like all the others who fail their Final Test.
Dazmine dropped her arms with a gape.
So Jenia…
Knew about this because her sister was picked out sometime during her five years here at the Esholian Institute and given a second brand. That whole confrontation in the jungle… it was all just a way for Jenia to prove that she belonged on the Good Council, too. But it seems like she didn’t think she could do it by herself, so she asked for help.
Despite the fact that she, Fergus, Jacques, and Quinn had failed their mission, whatever they’d done that day must have caught the Good Council’s attention anyway, because two of them had been branded twice now. But while Jenia had dissolved into a screaming fit on her hands and knees, Quinn had apparently been able to manage her Shape Shifting power just fine.
Or… was the new hair a sign that shecouldn’tcontrol it?
A quiet look of horror clouded Dazmine’s features.
Dazmine?I prompted.
She rubbed her eyes with a shaking hand.
Jenia once told me she was going to punish you and your friends once she was on the Good Council and had the authority to. I laughed at her. I didn’t think there was any way Dyonisia Reeve would recruit her, so I laughed in her face. I didn’t realize she was serious.
Yeah, that sounded like Jenia Leake. I wasn’t surprised she’d turned to a more willing friend after Dazmine had scoffed at her ideations.
What Iwassurprised about was the second Branding itself. To think that every elite on the Good Council had an extra power…
What did Kitterfol Lexington have besides Mind Manipulating? I’d never seen a single hint of another magic from him.
And wasthatwhat Lexington had meant would happen to me if I delivered him his batch of pills? I’d join Mr. Gleekle’s secret club? I’d get yet another brand—another power?
At that moment, a trio of Element Wielders lumbered past us, absorbed in their own giggling conversation. Dazmine and I fell back against the wall, pretending to fix the fallen strands of each other’s hair.
When the trio had faded around the corner, Dazmine asked,Does Quinn know where Jenia truly is right now?
No, but…I relayed all the other memories I’d witnessed up to the moment Kimber had cornered Quinn.Her sister does. And apparently, she’s willing to break her out of prison, but doesn’t know where to put her.
As soon as I said it, Dazmine’s eyes flashed open.
That’s it!She began to pace, her eyes glued to the floor.That’s what Terrin and I have been missing!
