Chapter 40
“Sister Kaur? Your candidate?”
Nina rose to her feet, exhaling. This was her moment.
This was what she had known would have to happen the moment Slate said her name.
The one choice she could make that would finally make sense of everything.
She would stitch up the wound, mend the hypocrisy; she would make two contradictory things equally true.
The House was holy. The House was violent.
It was possible to win, but only if you were willing to lose.
“My candidate,” said Nina, rising to her feet, “is myself.”
There was a collective gasp around the dining room. Beside the unmoving bodies of their recently incapacitated guests, The House was filled with sudden motion as girls turned to each other to whisper, to throw uneasy glances across the room.
“I believe in this sisterhood,” Nina explained simply. “I believe in it so much and so fully that I mean to prove every word I said to you the night of my initiation. I love The House unconditionally. I want every sister in this House to eat well.”
She looked around the room, her hands spread wide in saintliness, in invitation.
“I love you,” she said to her sisters. “This much.”
For a moment, it was deathly silent.
“Nina,” whispered Dalil, in reverence. In awe.
Beside her, Tessa’s eyes had filled with tears. Summer’s lips parted with a quiet sigh.
Across the room, Fawn swallowed hard, her jaw visibly tensing. Nina understood the hand she’d played, the way an ax was falling. Because who could beat it?
What had any of them ever wanted but love?