Page 37 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
No, please, no. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t—
“That’s enough.”
Lexington stood with a graceful flourish of his cloak, smiling as I broke into frantic gasps.
This was worse than the almost-drowning incident with the octopus—worse because even my knife, strapped to my thigh this time, wouldn’t have been able to save me anyways.
“Find out what those pills are for,” Lexington said before striding away, his boots clicking against the polished dining room floor. He looked over his shoulder once. “And next time you decide to mutilate someone, make sure it’s an actual traitor, not an innocent Esholian boy.”
As soon as he left the room, everyone’s rigid postures deflated. A few Wild Whisperers blinked down at their breakfasts, obviously confused, but I didn’t wait to explain or make sure they were okay.
I was already running, leaving my parfait behind, up the stairs and out onto Bascite Boulevard. Toward the Wild Whisperer sector and past the arboretum, where the jungle fell into eerie silence.
Dazmine was right where I thought she’d be—not sleeping in like everyone else, but talking to the sundews. Stroking their curled, sticky-ended heads as if they were cute domesticated pets and not giant man-eating traps.
The moment I broke into the clearing, however, she withdrew her hand and whipped around to face me.
“What the hell, Rayna? Why are youeverywhere?”
Behind her, the sundew uncurled themselves. Poised. Waiting to strike on command.
Every breath burned in my throat as I winced at the girl who hated me and said, “I need your help.”
CHAPTER
14
“Let me get this straight.”
Dazmine and I were facing each other behind an old classroom in the back of the Wild Whisperer sector. The sundew had started lunging for me before I could properly explain, so we’d chosen this less...carnivorouslocation to talk. The only drawback was all these damn insects buzzing around without those stalks of flesh-eating plants to nab them out of the air.
“That rumor about pirates breaching the shield last year is actually true,” Dazmine said now, crossing her arms. “And one of the pirate spies was, like, in love with you.”
“No, no, no. Not in love, just—”
Dazmine shushed me with a flap of her hand. “And Dyonisia Reeve, thefounder of this island, wantsyouto bring him down single-handedly with just a little piece of steel and… what? A love for mice?”
I didn’t stop myself from glaring at her as I waved away a lanternfly. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dazmine.”
She didn’t appear to hear me. “And this same pirate killed Fergus, got Jenia exiled, and has access to the ship she’s probably on right now? And his people are succeeding in attackingourpeople?”
“Pretty much,” I muttered. The only thing I hadn’t told her about was the pill. And Steeler’s unnerving speed. And the way he and I sometimes talked mind-to-mind. And how he’d bloomed into being in the corner of a Shape Shifter’s room, as if he’d been on the verge of murdering another man for touching me.
Okay, so I hadn’t told her the half of it. But telling anyone about Steeler at all felt like a huge dam cracking through my internal ice. Relieving me of some of the pressure but also…also…
It felt like everything was rushing fiercely outside of my control.
Dazmine frowned. A cloud of gnats circled her head like a halo, but she ignored them.
“Dyonisia Reeve is testing your loyalty. There’s no other explanation.” She looked back up at me, her eyes hard and calculating. “Reeve wants to make sure you’re onherside, not the pirates’. Because if that Coen Steeler was as smitten with you as you claim… well, itdoesmake one wonder if you were perhaps a traitor yourself. If you helped them spy and murder and escape.”
She said it without any restraint, without hiding her own suspicion. I made myself meet her stare without flinching this time.
“Are you going to help me or not? As you said, I don’t have much besides a bit of steel and my so-called love for mice.”
If I was going to keep someone as fast and strong as Steeler immobile long enough to stab him, I needed something stronger, thicker, and more violent than vines.
Dazmine didn’t remove her attention from my face. “Why me?”
