11. Seraphina
11
SERAPHINA
“THE SHRIKE”
14 years ago…
“Nina! Nina! Guess what, Nina?”
I raise my head from the tattered National Geographic magazine Maggie loaned me, finding the red-haired girl in question racing toward me through the field. Her foot snags on a bramble root in her haste, and she goes flying forward in slow motion.
I’m moving before I even know it, leaping across the short distance and snagging Maggie midair, wrapping my arms around her as I twist so my body takes the brunt of the impact. The air leaves my lungs in a mighty whoosh as we crash to the ground, the yellowed grass barely softening the impact as it crunches heavily beneath my back.
“Nina! Why did you do that?” Maggie scurries off me and takes my face between her delicate hands, searching for signs of injury. “Are you okay?”
“Peachy.” I roll to my hands and knees and take several deep breaths. “You should be more careful, Magoo.”
“I’m plenty careful!” Maggie stamps her foot while crossing her arms. “Hey! You didn’t even ask what I wanted to show you!”
I roll my eyes at the eight-year-old, unable to believe she’s only two years younger than me. Madams in Training are forced to mature so quickly, it’s strange Maggie still acts the way she does sometimes.
Of course, part of the reason is because I protect her at every turn. How could I not? Maggie is the best of us. The heart of our messed-up little group. Her joy for life is the only reason half of us keep going every day. Without her, we would be lost.
If only everyone saw it that way…
“Margaret! Seraphina! What are you doing?”
My blood freezes as the familiar lilt of the Madam’s voice carries throughout the clearing, and my terrified eyes find Maggie’s, silently begging her to run. If the Madam catches us out here relaxing…
Maggie shakes her head, puffing her chest out like she’s six feet tall. “I’m not scared of Calathea the Cruel.” Her cobalt eyes shine with pride as she utters the Madam’s secret nickname among the trainees. “I’m not scared of anything.”
A crunch sounds behind us, followed by the unmistakably low growl of Madam’s twin tigers, Nix and Niege. Madam is currently bent over, her shiny auburn hair falling around her face in perfect waves as her arm stretches to grab— oh gGods, no.
“And what… is this ?” Madam’s emerald eyes pierce us with malice as she holds up Maggie’s copy of National Geographic . Her twin white tigers Nix and Niege appear behind us, snapping at our heels, their fangs dripping with saliva as they force us to step forward.
Maggie goes to speak, and I shoot my arm out, clapping my hand over her mouth before she has the chance.
“It’s mine, Madam.” I lower my eyes with a feigned look of shame. “Margaret was attempting to confiscate it to show you, and I was trying to fight her off when you found us. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.” I fall to my knees, pressing my forehead to the dirt beneath her feet. “I promise, Madam, it will never happen again.”
“Is this true, runt?” Madam turns her gaze onto Maggie, and I watch from the corner of my eye as her tiny fist clenches at her side. All she has to do is play along and ? —
“No. It’s mine.”
My heart falls out of my chest at the beat of silence that follows. Deadly silence. Terrifying silence.
“Nina is trying to take the blame to protect me. It’s mine, Madam. Let her go. She didn’t do anything wrong.”
Madam’s eyes flit between us, their murderous sheen sealing our fate before she even utters a word. “So… you’re telling me Seraphina is a liar?”
Maggie’s face goes white. “Wha? No! She was just?—”
“So which is it, girl ?” Madam advances on Maggie. “Did Seraphina steal the magazine, or is she lying to spare you? Thief or liar. Thief. Or. Liar ?”
Maggie stutters, her wide eyes flicking from my face to Madam’s in a terrified frenzy. “I don’t… I don’t?—”
“Perhaps this will jog your memory.” Madam turns on her heels and fists her fingers in my hair, then hauls me into air like I weigh less than a feather. She holds a dagger poised just above my right eye, the blade glinting in the sun and promising my swift end.
“Which is it? Thief . or . liar ?” Her voice remains eerily calm as she inches the blade closer. It’s just about to touch my eye when Maggie cries out, tears spewing down her cheeks.
“Please don’t! She didn’t do anything wrong! It was me, I swear! Just let her go!”
Madam tuts, readjusting her grip on the blade so the tip of it pierces my right brow, drawing a pearl of blood as she breaks the skin.
“ Please!” Maggie falls to her knees as Madam presses the blade deeper into my flesh. I can feel the blade scraping against my skull, pressing into the thin bone separating the steel from my fragile brains. “ Please don’t! ”
“Such a pretty face, isn’t it?” Madam muses, looking at me like it’s the very first time. Like she just now sees me. “How terrible. Beautiful girls don’t last long in this world.”
My vision fractures as Madam drags the blade diagonally down my face, causing white- hot agony to burst from my every pore as she slashes deep across my nose bridge and into my smile line. Something warm is flooding down my face, but I can barely feel it past the searing pain throbbing from the oozing gash. I can barely see from my right eye, but when I look at Maggie, my heart splinters at the horror etched into her gentle features.
“Nina!” she screams, clawing at the ground as a Mask appears, holding her back by the scruff of her shirt. “Nina, hold on! I’m coming!”
“You’re not going anywhere except the dungeon.” Madam drops the weight of my body, letting me crumple to the dirt. “Take her.”
The Mask grabs Maggie under the arms, hauling her away to be punished in kind. She snarls and bites at the man’s skin, but he barely registers the young girl's attacks as he drags her past the clearing.
I want to run to her, but something is stopping me. It’s this sharp, searing ache throughout my body, pulsing with a life of its own. Holding me to the ground.
“Maggie,” I rasp, fighting to push myself onto my elbows. Thick drops of blood slide down my face and fall to the ground, mixing with the dirt and creating a horrible, slippery sludge. “ Maggie. ” I fall forward with my arm stretched out to where she’s disappearing over the hilltop.
The Madam kneels beside me in the dirt, brushing the silver hair from my face in what could be mistaken as a motherly gesture. “Oh, sweet Seraphina.” She drags her thumb delicately over my cheek, collecting the tear forming at the corner of my eye. “Why must you be so disappointing ?”
Her palm comes down hard on my cheek, and I wince from the jarring pain it sends straight to my skull. “ I picked you , girl. Saved you from your disgusting, X- addicted excuse of a mother. Saved you from a life of addiction. Of despair. You should be grateful. ” She stands, kicking me in the ribs. Once. Twice.
“Instead, you disobey me at every instance. You align yourself with swill like Margaret L’Amore.” She uses her steel-tipped boot to clobber me in the temple, and stars spark in my vision. “I should have the Mask kill her. If the Code allowed it…”
She sighs, delivering one last kick to my ribs before stepping away. “She will be dead soon, and there’s nothing you can do to save her. Nothing anyone can do to save a sorry excuse like her. She was selected for fodder , Seraphina. This is not the design—-she should have died long ago. She would have, if it wasn’t for you coddling her and getting the other girls to join in.
“You… You’re wrong , ” I choke. A smile spreads to my cheeks as Madam’s eyes light with fury.
“What did you say to me?” The tips of her bright red nails dig into her palms, causing pearls of blood to form and drip drip drip onto the grass. “ What did you say, little girl?”
“I said… You’re wrong .”
Madam’s boot rears back. But when it slams into my temple this time, I’m blessed with the kiss of unconsciousness.
Hours later, when I’m finally able to stand again, I hobble the distance toward the cabin me and the rest of the girls share for sleeping. My face is still oozing blood, and though I know I’ll probably need stitches, there’s no way I’m going through any more pain tonight. After stopping at the first- aid box and wrapping my face the best I can, I step into the rat dung -dung-infested quarters, desperate for sleep to take this cursed pain away. I shuffle slowly to the back where mine and Maggie’s bunk is situated, and as my eyes snag on the empty top bunk, fear gripping my chest.
Did the Madam do it? Did she kill Maggie?
I’m about to charge right back out before my gaze snags on a tiny thing huddled close to the wall on my bed, piles of carrot red hair spilling over her freshly bruised, tearstained-stained cheeks.
“Nina.” Maggie sniffles, wiping the back of her hand across her face as she stares at the blood-stained bandage wrapped around my face. Her eyes widen with heartbreak, big fat salty tears falling from the skies and staining her tattered tee shirt. “I-I’m so sorry, Nina. I never thought?—”
She breaks down into heaving sobs, and my chest cracks at the pain practically seeping from her pores. It’s like I can see it—like I can taste the notes of sorrow zesting the air.
“I didn’t want them to hurt you!” she wails, pulling up her knees and hiding her face. “I thought…I thought if I told them the truth—showed them that you were only trying to be good —that they wouldn’t hurt you. I failed you, Nina. I failed, and now you hate me.”
All I want to do is scoop the tiny girl into my arms and tell her everything will be alright. And so, I do.
“Hey, hey, hey.” I climb into bed and pull Maggie into my lap, brushing the messy curls from her forehead with a shushing sound. She pushes her face into my chest, her stringy arms hanging onto me for dear life as sobs rack her body. “I could never hate you, Magoo. You’re my favorite person in the whole wide world…. You were only trying to protect me. You were being brave. A heck of a lot braver than me.”
I gaze down at her, pulling her tiny body tighter against my chest as her sobs die down. “Plus, I’m pretty sure both of us were gonna get punished no matter what we said. We weren’t supposed to be out in that field in the first place—the magazine was just the cherry on top.”
Maggie’s sobs subside with the last of my words, and she sniffles weakly against my tee. “I’m gonna miss it. That was my favorite one—it had all the best mountains in it.”
I chuckle weakly, glad she’s not beating herself up so much anymore. “Maybe I could get it back for you.”
Maggie sits up so suddenly, she nearly knocks me out cold with the force her head hits my jaw. Too excited to notice, she gazes up at me with hope spilling out from her in a bright pink light. “You mean it? You could get it back?”
“It won’t be for a while, but… yeah, I think I can.”
I’d been hatching my plan to get Maggie’s magazine back ever since I woke up. I’ll have to wait until the Sanctum has their monthly meeting. Only the lowest level Disposers will be guarding us that night, so when they pass out, I’ll sneak down to the storage basement and ? —
“Nina?”
“Yes, Magoo?”
“You’re squishing me.”
I look down at her, a smirk gracing my lips. “Am I? That’s too bad.”
Maggie crinkles her nose as she tries to wriggle from my hold with all the strength of a tiny bird trying to free itself from my palm. I hug her tighter with a laugh, and she snuggles deeper into me, a giggle of her own escaping her lips as she gives up the fight. “I love you, Nina.”
“I love you too, Magoo.” I brush my fingers through her long red hair, carefully undoing the knots as I go. “By the way… you never did tell me what you wanted to show me earlier in the forest.”
Maggie’s eyes go wide with excitement. She jumps up, rushing over to her bed and grabbing something from beneath the mattress. “I was able to hide it from the Masks—just barely.” She trots over to me, something clenched tightly in her palm.
I raise a brow, holding my hand out expectantly. “If it’s something that bites…”
Maggie rolls her eyes, opening her fist to reveal a perfect white feather. I twist it between my fingers, marveling at how the scales glisten in the moonlight.
Madams in training are not allowed to have possessions—not so much as a piece of pocket lint—so the fact that Maggie was able to hide this gift is quite amazing. Amazing, and dangerous.
I open my mouth to warn her about the repercussions of her actions, but the beaming smile on my face smothers the words in my throat.
“It’s beautiful, Magoo.”
“It’s a dove feather,” she proclaims, reaching out and stroking the feather lovingly. “Because you’re pretty as a dove, Nina. And kind as one, too.”
A smile tugs at my lips, and for a moment, I find myself forgetting all about the rules and repercussions. “ Are doves kind?”
Maggie shrugs. “I don’t know. But they seem really sweet from afar.”
I throw my head back in a throaty laugh. “If I’m a dove, then you’re a shrike.”
Maggie snorts. “A shrike ? Aren’t those the silly little birds that bounce around on the cypress limbs?”
“Mm-hm.” A smile teases my lips as I think of them. “What? You don’t want to be a shrike?”
“They’re just so… little.” She wrinkles her nose with distaste. “ Weak .”
“Shrikes? Weak?” I gasp, widening my eyes comically and causing Maggie to giggle. “Don’t you know how the mighty shrike gets its food?”
She shakes her head, her bright blue eyes lit up with curiosity. “How?”
“Hmm. I don’t knowww… you’ll probably think it’s stupid. After all, shrikes are just silly weak birds, right?”
“Tell me! Tell me!” Maggie insists, clutching at my shirt in a fit of giggles. “Tell meeee!”
I bring a finger to my lips to shush her, a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. “ Fine, I’ll tell you… but you have to keep it an absolute secret. Can you do that, Magoo?”
Maggie nods violently, her grin never faltering. “I can!”
“Well…” I clear my throat dramatically. “Shrikes are small, like you said… but they use that to their advantage. They expertly sneak up to their prey, then fly high, dropping them onto thorns and impaling them. Deader than dead,” I say, a manic smile twisting my lips.
“That’s… so cool, ” Maggie breathes, her eyes wide with the thread of knowledge I bestowed. “I want to be like a shrike! I want to be able to take down someone like that!”
“Then a shrike you’ll be.” I pull her back down beside me. “Now try and get some rest, little bird. Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to stick something with the pointy end of a dagger. Then, you can do as the shrikes do.”
“You promise?” Maggie whispers, her voice already sluggish with the pull of sleep.
I reach over, hooking my pinky with hers as we both fall into blissful nothingness.
“Pinky promise.”