Page 76 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
And okay, maybe my tone was a bit snippy, but Steelerstill wouldn’t look at me.Healwayslooked at me. Too much looking, in fact. And yet now that I’d succeeded in warding off one of my greatest threats for the time being, he wasn’t going to spare a single glance in my direction?
“Like I’ve said before, Drey, you’ve already involved her.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him cross his arms over his chest, his sharp ears poking through his hair with the movement. “And from my experience, if we don’t give someone the answers they’re seeking, they’ll just start meddling. Which would cause a bigger problem for all of us.”
“How pragmatic of you.”
We both resumed watching Terrin and Dazmine throw Element Wielding against Wild Whispering, earth and wind and fire and air against all the insects and plant life in the vicinity.
I had to admit, Dazmine was… good at talking to the jungle. It followed her hums and whistles like war cries, reacting to her voice with passion and violence as opposed to the usual gentleness it offered me.
But soon enough, a whisper pushed against my blockade—like thoughts floating on a muffled wind—and I knew instinctually that a group of people were moving closer to our location.
Perhaps Mr. Gleekle and his mysterious posse of students were coming back, or maybe it was just a group of friends passing by, messing around during their free time…
Either way, I wasn’t surprised when Steeler disappeared in a flash, reappearing right between Dazmine and Terrin only long enough to let his eyes land on mine from across the trampled, battered space of jungle between us.
Then he reached out to grab them both, and they all three blinked out of existence. Leaving me alone.
I cringed at the thought of Dazmine experiencing that dragging darkness for herself. But if she was going to make such a ruckus in response to her wish coming true exactly as she’d asked for it…
Quietly, I crooned to the roots and vines and ferns, urging them to retreat back into their original positions. I couldn’t do anything about the pile of ashes littered here and there or the various holes in the ground that Terrin had made, but soon the undergrowth swallowed up any evidence of his magic as it regrouped itself in response to my voice.
“You’re good at that, you know.”
Steeler had returned.
I kept my back to him, bending to stroke the safflowers on their quivering, serrated leaves.
“Good at what?”
“Good at encouraging. At healing. At growing.”
I snorted. “Maybe the right version of me is, but this is the wrong version of me, so no, I’m not good athealingorgrowingright now.” I clutched my basket harder. “I can barely manage to keep my best friend’s birdfeeder full for her. But you know what Iamgood at, Steeler?”
When he didn’t answer right away, I couldn’t handle it any longer—I straightened and rounded on him.
A jolt ran down my body, right to my toes, when I discovered how close he’d truly been lurking behind me.
“What else are you good at, little hurricane?” Steeler whispered.
I wiggled my toes to try to stop them from tingling. “Lying to Kitterfol Lexington.”
“Oh, I know. I was watching the whole thing. You did lovelier than I could have ever dreamed of—and I dream of you quite a bit.” He paused, his attention roving over every curve and dip of my face. “Is that what you wanted to hear, Drey? That you did lovely?”
By the orchid and the owl, I wouldnotblush for this man.
“Or,” Steeler pressed on, eroding the distance between us with half a stride, “did you want to hear that I was going out of my God-forsaken mind while you faced that monster alone? That itkilledme to simply hover and wait while he barged through the mist of your mind?”
“I—that’s not—”
I stumbled back.
His hand shot out and caught me by the small of my back.
“Ordid you want to hear that I was so sure our plan would fail, so sure a Mind Manipulator in her first week couldn’tconceal memories from a Mind Manipulator in his fifteenthyearthat I had my fucking sleeves already rolled up, ready to progress the course of fate faster than intended? That when you stepped away victorious, I couldn’t bear to face you because I knew if I did, I would grab you and pull you in close and never let you go again?”
Hewaspulling me in close now, my breasts curving into the hollow beneath his chest. The tingling in my toes hadn’t gone away—it had traveled upward again, swirling around the warm pressure of his hand against my back.
“What I want,” I breathed up at him, “is to go check on Dazmine and learn some new Mind Manipulating tricks from Garvis. That’s it.”
