Chapter Three
Fern
Fuck my entire life. My eyes flit over the screen again, rereading the secure message that just came in.
This cannot be happening.
The last sentence runs through my head. “Remember that your approval is signed and sealed within the Department of Gargoyle Relations, per Section Twelve, subset B ‘wherein entry to the bridal selection is considered fully legal and binding given the human’s continued residence within the New United States’. ”
Just as my mind starts to unfog and I realize I need to get the hell out of here, I hear the autolocks on my house engage.
Fuck. Goddamn government control of electronics.
I try to focus on my breath, struggling to calm down.
Fuck this, I think, as I stand and head to the cabinet to grab a bottle of wine.
My eyes land on the two bottles at the back of the cabinet.
Fuck, I’ll lose six months of work. I grab them and open the window angrily.
I cannot believe I’ll lose these weapons, I think as I pour them out into the dry grass.
That done, I pick up the wine again, pulling straight from the bottle. As I wipe my mouth, my eyes catch on the photograph of my parents, hanging framed on the wall.
How can I submit to this? Hatred fills me. These bastards killed my parents. Now I’m expected to let them rut me like beasts?
No. I will never submit. I bring the wine bottle with me as I sit in front of my screens and start encrypting some messages. Lora’s first, I think, she needs as much information as I can pass on. Then Raquel and Noah.
I look at the time. I have seven hours.