Page 54 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
“You said you had witch hazel?”
“Yes.”Yes. Her thought echoed her voice, creating a strange but somewhat pleasant harmony in my ears.Why?
I wished I could plant my own thoughts withinhermind so that Garvis didn’t have to hear what I said next… but I didn’t know how to do that yet. So I mumbled through my teeth, “When he comes back, can you make sure to disinfect those wretched wounds of his?”
“Oh, of course!”Why didn’t I think of that?
Garvis raised a thin eyebrow at me.
“What?” I threw up my hands. “I can’t throttle him if he’s already dead of a fever.”
The amusement didn’t leave Garvis’s face, but he just said, “Coen probably doesn’t need sterilization. Mature faeries heal a lot faster than their previous selves, but—whatever you say, Rayna. Now, are you ready for your first Mind Manipulating lesson?”
I nodded, twisting my fingers together nervously.
“Good. Because it won’t be fun, so you might want to sit down.”
“Oh. Okay.”
I followed his lead, settling into a cross-legged position on the rug while Felicity went back to fiddling with cupboards and drawers in the kitchen, chittering under her breath. This close, I could see the faint line of kohl smudged under Garvis’s eyes—a pirate indeed.
“Do you mind if we hold hands?” he asked awkwardly. “It’s tradition. Usually it’s a bigger circle, but under the circumstances…”
“Uh, sure.”
I let him take my hands and tried to relax into them. They were so much softer and leaner than Steeler’s, reminding mepainfully of Fabian and the way he used to stroke my hair to sleep.
“Okay, now I want you to close your eyes.”
I closed my eyes.
“Focus on your outermost thought. Go ahead and tell me what it is. I can’t hear it right now because I have my own personal blockade up.”
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
“Why do you let Steeler speak so…rudely to you?”
Garvis gave a soft snort. “He’s not usually like that. He’s in pain, and he’s a maturing faerie with a lot of new… sensations to deal with.” Before I could ask more about that, he said, “Now go a layer deeper. What’s your second most outer thought?”
I sighed and squeezed my eyes even tighter, trying to concentrate on digging through all the questions.
“What did he mean when he said he can’t bear to be in my mind right now?” Originally, I’d thought it had to do with his mutilated brand, but the more I thought about the wording…
Garvis didn’t answer this time. When I peeked open an eye, he had his own closed and appeared to be breathing deeply.
“Now go a layer deeper,” was all he said.
A rattle in the kitchen made me thinkI’m surprised about Felicity. That she lives with him here in the lighthouse. That she trusts him enough to call him Coco.But I didn’t say that part out loud.
“Go a layer deeper,” Garvis ordered, the sound of his voice mingling with the crackling fire, soothing and hypnotizing.
I don’t blame Steeler for doing everything in his power to keep these kinds of secrets confidential… even if it means Manipulating me.
Wait—what? Why had I just told myself I didn’t blame the faerie who’d dragged me into this mess? Of course I blamed him, I…
“Deeper,” Garvis interrupted, and that single word seemed to push me back until I was sinking into the next thought.
I liked the feel of Steeler’s fingers moving aside my hair.
