Page 42 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
“That’s not possible,” I got out. “What—how—”
I expected Steeler to make up more excuses, more nonsensical allusions that would leave me in a state of feeling crazy.
Instead, he dragged in a deep breath and said, “I’m a faerie.”
I stared at him. A flash of lightning forked between clouds in the distance. The wind seemed to howl and tug at my dress even harder.
“I’m a faerie,” Steeler continued, still holding up his palms, “the same as the ones of old, and I’m… maturing.” Here, his jaw twitched in… annoyance? Anger? I couldn’t tell, but I definitely wasn’t moving, wasn’t evenbreathing, as he said, “Which means I get a shiny new power of my own.”
I tried to find the twitch of his lips or that deadly glimmer of humor in his eyes to indicate he was joking, but… nothing.
And now I took a step back, my feet clinking over pebbles, as the full weight of what he was saying slammed into me.
“Faeries are extinct.”
Now Steeler pretended to examine himself, his pricked hands, slashed brand, and bare chest rolling with beads of rain.
“Are we? I feel alive enough. Although I suppose you could have actually killed me back there and I could be hallucinating all of this.”
Through the trembling in my bones, I willed myself to stop and think, stop and think, stop andthink. For the first time, Coen Steeler had told me something of value. Something substantial.
“And your power is—what?” I asked hesitantly. “Ultra speed?”
Because how else would we have traveled from one place to another so quickly? How else would he have escaped the sundew in less than the blink of an eye?
Steeler dropped his palms, something like relief flickering over his eyes before hardening again into that smoky quartz.
“Not speed, necessarily. But… I can cut through space to get from one point to another. Location hopping, if you will. It’s convenient, I’ll admit, but it’s still really new, and itdoestend to give you the worst motion sickness.” He didn’t chuckle, but I could hear one brimming in his voice, and it made me remember that wicked laugh of his in the alleyway moments before I’d whirled to face him for the first time. He’d… he’d disappeared and reappeared so fast so many times that…
Yes, location hopping would explain everything. The way he moved from one point to another within less than a blink of a second. The way he’d materialized in the Shape Shifter’s room, dripping with wrath.
But for some reason my brain wasn’t catching up to the reality of what that truly meant.
Steeler surveyed me carefully now, as if waiting for some kind of explosive reaction. When my face remained immobile, that wall of ice wrapping even tighter around me, he sighed and pushed aside his rain-drenched, overgrown hair to reveal…
Ears.Sharpenedears. As sharp as his canines had become.
Now my knees hollowed out. I stumbled sideways before catching myself again.
Neither Mr. Fenway nor Mrs. Smetlar had ever described a faerie formally, but Ihadheard the rumors of those pointy ears back in Alderwick. How faerie children used to look like humans, but when they had fully matured sometime in their twenties, all their features had become sharper. Wickeder. Stronger.
Almost like a vampire’s.
I couldn’t allow myself to wallow in this new information, however. Couldn’t try to piece together what it all meant if I wanted to get out of here. Becauseherewas a place no one could hear me scream.Herewas a place Steeler could still dump my body or keep me locked away or…
“Why did you bring me here?” I asked to keep my thoughts on track, trying to keep my voice as steady as his.
“I told you.” Steeler took a single, casual step toward me. “I’ve found an alternative to the weekly memory wipe. But you have to come inside with me.” He nodded over his shoulder at the lighthouse. “And you have to choose it for yourself.”
I let my eyes flick toward the lighthouse again, this time soaking in more of its details.
It sat on a mound of boulders, a column of gray stone that nearly blended in with the mist itself. The cupola was dark, but small lights flickered in the windows of a keeper’s cottage attached to the base. Two separate stone staircases wound up to different doors, one leading to the lighthouse base, the other to the cottage’s wraparound porch.
“Is this some kind of ambush?” I asked… for I could have sworn several shadows moved beyond those lit windows. Another thought ignited in my chest. “Are you using your power to help the pirates breach the dome?”
Steeler hesitated for only a moment.
“I can use my power to surpass the dome, yes. And I can take others with me, just like I took you. But we’re not breaching it in the way you think. And if thiswasan ambush, I would’ve Walked you straight inside.”
