Page 93 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
What this young teenage version of Steeler didn’t understand, however, was the nature of her power.
“What do you mean Dyonisia’s magic is conscious?” he asked slowly, holding the canister of pills in a vice-like grip.
“I mean,” Nara sighed out, “that her dome will disintegrate any full-fledged faeries with powers of their own, yes… but she does not seem to want to hurt the humans of this island with their Branded magic. Anyone with Wild Whispering, Mind Manipulating, Element Wielding, Shape Shifting, or Object Summoning can go in and out of the dome without harm.”
I felt my heart begin to hammer somewhere in my real body in the outside world, because this… this didn’t make any sense. Dyonisia Reeve was keeping the original Good Council locked away in here. Why would she granttheirmagic—or clones of it—immunity?
“But that means that any of the Branded humans could leave this island with their children if they choose to,” Steeler said slowly.
Nara dipped her head.
“Indeed. In fact, there have been a few families over the years who have escaped unharmed—and not because they were exiled, but of their own free will. We picked them up and had Old Veracious scan them to test their true identities, of course, make sure they weren’t Dyonisia or her elites in disguise… but then we let them go.”
Let them go. My head reeled at the thought that some Esholian families had fled the island on boat, encountered the pirates they’d always been taught to fear, and been releasedagain—only to face what? An endless expanse of ocean and no idea of where to go from there?
I could only hope they’d found land before they perished.
Nara pointed at the canister in Steeler’s hand.
“You and the others will need to take those pills once a week. They will not touch your Branded magic; they will simply prevent your innate faerie power from bursting into shape. But be warned…” She leaned forward. “There is a price to pay for such a thing.”
Steeler stiffened. “I’ll pay you anything you ask. I can get—”
Nara shook her head. “I’m not talking about coin.” Here, her gaze lowered as if ashamed. “If we are to keep meeting each other in secret so that I can give you a new stash every month, you must give me inside information about the island. Those are the stipulations I was given. I am not allowed to help you for free.”
“Oh.” Steeler blew out a disgusted breath, one that I echoed at the thought of the Fated General holding something like a life-saving medication over his head like this. “Well, I assumed she’d find a way to make sure I followed through with my spying anyway. It’s a deal.”
Nara nodded, but then her gaze lifted again.
“You must remember that these pills are only temporary, Coen. You and the others can’t take them forever. As soon as you graduate from that wretched Institute, I want you to come back, okay?” A hidden message seemed to be lurking beneath her words. “I want you to come back and let yourselfexplode.”
The mist changed.
Steeler was older, lined with the muscles I’d grown accustomed to, patrolling the pentaball arena with his hands behind his back.
It was strange to see him walking so openly about campus, no stalking or sneaking or Walking required.
And even stranger when I heard my own scream pierce through one of the tents a few rows down from him.
The sound of Mattheus’s scream from so long ago seemed to fill his ears… and suddenly he was sprinting toward me, ripping open the tent flaps, finding me surrounded by my new friends on their backs. He recognized me as the girl with the beautiful mind—the one he had wanted to sink into and lose himself within upon my arrival at the Esholian Institute earlier that day.
This was where my own memory cut off. I had no recollection of looking up to find the prince of the Mind Manipulators gaping at me.
In Steeler’s memory, though, I watched him throw me over his shoulder and haul me to that alleyway between our sectors’ houses. I heard everything he said to me, felt his confusion about the possibility of me, his desperation to save me from the same fate as Mattheus, the savage possessiveness that slammed into him from the moment I lifted my chin and repeated my name, loud and clear.
“Rayna Drey.”
“I see. Rainy Days doesn’t make much sense anyway, does it? You’re not a soft little drizzle.” His lips tilted up, although now, from this angle, I saw it for what it was: a frantic attempt to hide the snarling rage he already felt at the thought of a whip striking against any part of my body. “You’re more like a raging hurricane.”
She has to be, he thought.She has to be, or she will not survive this.
The mist changed.
Steeler was seated at the front row of the Mind Manipulator section in the stadiums during the Branding, looking bored out of his mind.
Until my name was called.
Then, every fiber of his body perked up as my figure made its way onto the stage where Mr. Gleekle stood with his poker and brand. Now I knew that particular brand had always been infused with Wild Whispering, but at the time, I’d had no idea which magic would erupt from me when it pressed its scorching kiss against my skin. I hadn’t even known ifanymagic would erupt, considering I’d just dry-swallowed Steeler’s pill moments earlier.
