Page 44 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
“Coco? Is the talking human here?”
From the shadows of a side hallway, a scuffling figure bounded forward on rail-thin arms, its tail whipping and curling as it came to a halt at my feet.
I gaped down at the awe-struck face of a monkey. A young female, probably equivalent to a teenager judging from the lighter, pinker hue of her nose and the smaller row of teeth she flashed up at me in a smile.
“Oh, itisyou,” she trilled, and clambered up my legs until she was hanging off my shoulder with one hand and inspecting one of my curls with her other. “You’re just as beautiful as he’s described. Is it true that you can understand what I’m saying right now?I’m Felicity, by the way.”
“H-hi, Felicity. I can hear you.” I glanced from her bright, fuzz-filled face to Steeler’s observing gaze and whispered, “What are you doing here so far away from the jungle?”Did he kidnap you, too?I meant to convey.
The monkey sighed, dropped my curl, and turned mud-brown eyes onto me.
“My family banished me from their tribe because I’m not…”She lowered her voice, even though I was the only one in the room who’d be able to understand her. “I’m not very good at telling jokes. For instance…”She cleared her throat importantly. “Why did the orangutan divorce the chimp four weeks after he married her? This is the joke that got me disowned, by the way.”
I could feel the others’ eyes on us, and tried to imagine what they must be hearing: a lot of grunting, cooing, and barking.
“I don’t know,” I relented, the tiniest seed of amusement breaking through every other frenzied feeling inside me. “Why did he?”
“Because there was a thirty-day monkey-back guarantee!” When I snorted, the monkey—Felicity—said, “My family ripped me apart for using chimp and monkey interchangeably. If there’s one thing they value, it’s that we don’t have opposable thumbs or use human tools.”
“Oh. That’s… not very progressive.”
Dammit. That was definitely the wrong thing to say. Mr. Conine would have given me a big fat fail for that one.
But the monkey just beamed at me and clung tighter. “That’s what I think, too! I’ve always wanted to learn how to use human tools and do human things. I want to be a cook and a hairdresser and a candlemaker and so much more. So when I fled to the edge of the jungle and saw Coco digging for clams on the beach…”
She nodded over her shoulder, and my gaze whipped to Steeler’s. Coco? Coco as inCoen? By the orchid and the owl.
“He couldn’t understand me likeyoudo,”the monkey continued happily, “but two lonely outcasts should stick together, don’t you think?So I’ve been here, teaching myself how to cook and build things and even cut his hair ever since. Well, I usually cut his hair.”She tossed a glare at Steeler. “He’s been so busy the past few days that he hasn’t had time for his weekly trim.Which offends me, by the way.”
I didn’t have a reply to that. My body had resumed shivering against my will—from confusion or shock or residual nausea, I couldn’t tell. Faeries and lighthouses and monkeys… it was all too much.
Steeler seemed to track each shudder that wracked through me and said in a measured voice, “I think this would be easier if we all take a seat.”
A few plush armchairs and loveseats were crammed by the fireplace, and at his words, the others drifted toward them.
I stood rooted to the spot, though, as Felicity clambered down and bounded off to the small stretch of kitchen counter beneath a window overlooking the ocean. Lightning still flickered out there, flaring up the horizon with each strike. No pirate ships, which meant…
“You never left the island?” I asked Steeler, who was the only one still standing… waiting for me to take a seat first, it seemed. “You didn’t actually breach the dome last year?”
And because the monkey Felicity was already clattering around on the kitchen counter, grabbing mugs and teabags, I forced myself to go claim the last available armchair next to Sylvie. Sinking into its cushioned frame, I let the warmth of the fire wash away the chills still crawling over my skin. For the monkey, I told myself. Because she was obviously eager to make me feel… at home. In an abandoned lighthouse. With five of the island’s most wanted fugitives.
God of the Cosmos.
Finally, Steeler followed. He didn’t sit, though. He loomed over us all with his hands shoved behind his back, the firelight illuminating every scar and burn I’d inflicted upon his body tonight.
“No, Rayna,” he said at last. “I left the island. We all did.” He gestured at the others, who shifted uncomfortably in their seats. “But as soon as we made it to the ships, I… well, the maturing process started for me.” Here, something stiffened in his voice. “In the turmoil, I forgot to take my suppressant pill, and I suddenly found myself in that darkness you just experienced. When I finally clawed my way out, I was back on the island.” A shrug, as if the idea of slipping through holes in space was no big deal. “So I found this abandoned lighthouse—pretty sure it was used for spying on pirates once upon a time, until our fleets decided to move more southward—and decided to stay. But this is the first time the others have come back since they left.”
A hundred different questions should have been rattling around inside my head, but the only phrase that echoed back was—
“Suppressant pill?” I repeated.
Every bit of fidgeting from the others froze. The only movement came from Felicity, who was humming obliviously and transporting drinks to the grill over the fireplace to heat up.
Finally, Sylvie spoke up beside me.
“We all took the pills while we were on the island,” she said softly, the onyx of her eyes warping with tears. “Even Coen used to, before his own power broke free. They kept our natural faerie magic stifled while allowing the branded magic—” She nodded down at her shoulder “—to thrive.”
For the first time since Steeler and his bamboo scent had materialized in my room, my head jolted with a throb of pain. As if itknew.
