Chapter 3
“Can I change into my other clothes?” I look down at my blood-stained blouse, skirt, and combat boots. Whatever garments are inside the bag must be better than what I have on.
Grayson stands watch in the woods behind me as I unbutton my silk shirt. It was a gift from my mother on my seventeenth birthday. She saved her credits to purchase it at the fancy store all the teenage girls frequented. I let it fall to the ground in a heap of memories. I wore it on my first date with Flynn—the one where he stole a forbidden kiss, out of sight from the cameras.
The government-issued shirt is made from a rough canvas material, scratching at my delicate skin. The two garments mirror my former life and the new one I am stepping into with a hesitant toe.
“Are you almost done?” Grayson whispers. He has his hand on his revolver.
“Almost,” I hiss back as I pull up the pants. Never in my life have I worn a pair of pants. They feel foreign to me, like the material of the shirt. I sit to pull on my boots. “Why won’t they like me? Besides the fact that I’m a Citizen?”
He laughs, a little too loud. “You’re a princess. Not literally, but you think it’s another’s duty to take care of you. I understand where you’re coming from, but they won’t. So, for now, stay quiet and do as you’re told.”
Without another word, I follow him to the front door of the cabin, eager for the safety of the locks on the doors. He raps his knuckles in a secret code and waits. An eye appears in a tiny hole in the wood before we hear the telltale click of the lock.
A man a year or two older than me, with dark hair and glasses, opens the door. He has a slight build and wears a dark shirt and brown pants. He grins at Grayson, and I like him already.
“Levi.” Grayson signs with his hands as he says, “This is Mari.”
Levi signs his response as he speaks. “It’s nice to meet you, Mari. I didn’t know you were so pretty.” He faces Grayson. “Where’s the other one?”
My guide hangs his head and draws in a breath. “It was a werewolf.” His hands work the sign for what I assume is wolf.
The younger man ushers us in and locks the door. “A fifty percent success rate is not bad for your first run.” He touches Grayson’s shoulder after he hangs up his coat, then slides his hand down to sign. “I know you were hoping for a hundred.”
“Smells good in here.” Grayson walks to the kitchen, ignoring Levi’s comments, and glances inside a pot cooking above a fire in the hearth. “Where are the others?”
“In their rooms—sulking.” Levi scoops a heaping ladleful of soup into a wooden bowl and places it on the table. “Four’s enough for them, but I say, the more the merrier.”
From Grayson’s assessment of the other orphans, I did not expect Levi’s welcoming attitude. I relax my shoulders and sit at the table, ready for warm food in my stomach. The shock of Tanner’s death is wearing off, and I want nothing more than a good meal and a warm bed.
Levi sits opposite me and smiles. “It’s nice to have a pretty face around here. The others scowl all the time.”
I’m thankful that he talks as he signs. The teachers never taught me sign language in school because the deaf are promptly sent to the Unseen. I only read about it in books.
“Why are they so unhappy?” I speak slowly and make sure he can see my mouth, unsure of how to act around him. If this is my life, I’ll learn to sign for the man who made me feel so welcome in this strange world.
“They aren’t,” he replies before spreading butter on a piece of bread. “They’re only tired of serving the people of Avren. You aren’t on their list of favorite people.”
But they haven’t met me yet.
And back in Avren, I’d done the same thing. I’d freely used the nickname Undesirable for people I didn’t know, and even with those I did, like Caron. I couldn’t expect anything more from them. I was a stuck-up Citizen who only cared about herself.
The sound of boots stomp on the stairs, and Grayson enters, followed by a woman who appears to be in her early twenties. She has fire-red hair and a smatter of freckles on her cheekbones. Her green eyes are anywhere but on me.
Grayson walks to the hearth and ladles out a bowl of soup, nodding his head in my direction. “Mari, this is Everleigh, my girlfriend. Everleigh—Mari.”
“Where’s the other snot-nose kid?” She takes the bowl from Grayson’s hand. “Bastian and I told you not to take this job. Fresh Avrenian blood will lead them right to our doorstep.”
“She’s an orphan, like us, Evie.” He sighs and places his bowl at the table beside me. “Can you show an ounce of compassion?” Sitting down, he takes a piece of bread and places it on a napkin beside his bowl. “The boy didn’t make it. I had to kill a werewolf in the highlands.”
Still not looking at me, Everleigh sits beside Levi and digs her spoon into her soup, stirring it. Wafts of steam rise from the surface. “See. They attract the supernatural like flies to rotten meat.”
I bite into my lip, wanting to ask her why she’d compare me to a dead carcass. But I stick to my agreement with Grayson and remain quiet. These people—Levi and Everleigh, along with someone named Bastian—are being asked to accept a person who is from a city that oppresses them. Their hatred makes sense.
“We’ll start training tomorrow. If she is to be one of us, she’ll need to know how to defend herself.” Grayson elbows me, causing the soup on my spoon to spill on the wooden table. “If there’s one thing I’ll agree with, it’s that she’s about as useful as a dead carcass.”
“Hey!” I set my spoon down and cross my arms. In Avren, they trained me as a seamstress before my mother died. Caron also helped hone my skills with a needle and thread. The plan was that I would supervise Undesirables in my clothing shop when I had a place. I tread the fine line between the others liking me and standing up for myself. “It’s not as if I like the situation any more than any of you, but the Council arranged it and we’re stuck together.”
Everleigh smirks and brushes a strand of curly hair out of her face. “Maybe we can feed her to the wolves, or even better, the fairies. It’s not like anyone’s going to miss her in Avren. Her parents are dead.”
I close my eyes. “My mother’s dead.” I run my finger along the woodgrain of the table. The unpredictability of the knots and grooves reminds me of my current situation. “My father left for the wilderness of his own accord.”
“Oh, I stand corrected.” Everleigh narrows her gaze on me for the first time. “Your mother’s dead and your father rejected you. I don’t know what’s worse. Must be a beast to live with.” She turns to Levi and signs as a huge smirk crosses her lips.
“Knock it off, Evie,” Levi says, eyebrows drawn in. “You need to give people a chance.”
“Where’s Bastian?” Everleigh scrapes back her chair and cups her hands over her mouth. “Bastian! Get down here, you big baby. I’m outnumbered.”
A door creaks open at the top of the stairs, and I hear his boots, heavy on the floorboards, before I see him. He’s dressed differently than the others, wearing more formal fighting gear—leather straps crisscross over his enormous chest. His long brown hair falls like a curtain over his face, where a deep scowl carves into his full lips. I can’t see his eyes.
“You woke me from my nap, Evie,” he growls, pushing a strand of hair to the side and revealing a crystal-blue eye.
My breath hitches.
“I need support on this one.” She plops back into her chair and holds a hand out to me. “Gray and Levi think it’s ok to drag this stuck-up werewolf magnet into our home without our consent.”
Bastian wanders into the kitchen and rests his hands against the counter, mumbling something under his breath. I stare at his massive shoulders. They move up and down as he breathes. Never in my life have I seen someone as strong as him. Even Grayson doesn’t measure up, and he killed a werewolf.
He turns to us, tucking his hair behind his ears and staring at me with his mesmerizing eyes, then flicking them to Grayson. “I’ve got enough to worry about with the attacks on the southern edge of the city, and you want me to train her too? A weakling? A Citizen raised as a princess?”
I square my shoulders, hostility running through my veins. I want to jump up and attack him, but he could squeeze the life out of me with one hand. So, I use the only weapon I have—my words. “And I suppose a big oaf like you turns to barbells instead of books because you struggle to string a complete sentence together?”
Grayson’s eyes widen, and he shakes his head. A foot kicks me under the table.
Bastian pushes off from the counter and crosses the room, pulling out the chair from the end of the table and flipping it around before he sits in it. He rests his arms on the back, placing his chin on them and stares at me. “You brought us a smart mouth, Gray. Maybe I’ll enjoy whipping her ass into shape.”
Everleigh laughs and tosses her hair over her shoulder. “This might be fun. Build her confidence before we throw her to the wolves.”
“Enough, already.” Grayson shoves his bowl to the center of the table. “We discussed this before I took the job. The Redeemed in the towns will eat her alive, and the only other options are for her to try her luck with the Supes or become one of Arazian’s zombies, and like Bastian said, she’s in no shape for that.”
“Citizen or not, she’s like us,” Levi signs before he stands and picks up his bowl along with Grayson’s and brings them to the sink. “Another mouth to feed won’t harm us too badly.”
I slump in my chair as the four carry on a conversation as if I’m not there. I miss my mother and my friends in Avren—Samryn, Ferrah, and Mel. With Tanner gone, no one really understands what I’m going through. For Grayson, it has been many years since he left the city. He’s acclimated to his life as a Redeemed—whatever that means.
“And what about the sickness?” Everleigh crosses her arms. Freckles pepper her bare skin, the same as the ones on her face. “Her mother had it. Who’s saying she’s not contagious? One thing’s for sure. There’s no way I’m touching her or getting any closer than this.” She motions between the two of us.
Hot tears well in my eyes. With talk of my mother, she’s hit a nerve, bringing up feelings I tried to push behind me. I long for my bed with the soft sheets and the music box my father bought me when I was five. After my father left us, I’d wind it up each night, its comforting melody lulling me to sleep. This will be my first night without it. Everything I ever owned, except my mother’s ledger, now belongs to the government.
“You better get some rest.” Bastian inspects me as if he can read my every thought, making me squirm in my seat. He must see the tears I desperately try to hide. “I’m going to drag you out of bed at the crack of dawn. I’ve got more to do with my day than train weaklings.”
No longer caring about what he, or any of them, can see, I straighten my back. “I hope one day someone places you in front of a bunch of strangers and questions you about how your parents died.” I scrape back my chair, ready to march out, but I don’t know where I’m going. “Where am I sleeping?”
“This way.” Grayson stands and glares at his girlfriend and Bastian. He leads me to a door to the right of the kitchen and opens it, ushering me in.
The room is small adorned with two twin mattresses on the floor covered in patchwork quilts, an oil lamp, and a bookshelf. A pair of pants and a shirt are laid out on each bed, folded in a neat package.
Grayson scratches his neck before picking up the pile from Tanner’s bed. “I’ll store these for now. Your fighting clothes are on loan from Everleigh, and Bastian thought you might like a few books to read. The quilt belonged to Levi’s grandmother.”
The gifts almost make up for the possessions taken by the leadership in Avren. A deep pang of loss fills my chest with the realization that this is my home, and I’ll never see the streets of the city again—at least not in the same way.
“Do you like to read?” Grayson picks up a book from the shelf and leafs through it. “I took it for granted when I was in school. Thought it was a waste of time when I could play Suda with my friends. You never know what you’ll miss until it’s gone.”
“I do.” The titles are as unfamiliar to me as my current surroundings. “My mother read to me from the time I was small. I spent many hours locked away in Avren’s library, perusing the sewing pattern books and classic literature.”
“You mend?”
I should have stayed quiet.
“Before my mother died, I was on track to open a dress shop in the Settlement.” I stare down at my hands, ready for the questions to end. “Can we talk about this tomorrow?”
He places the book back on the shelf, shoving it into an open slot. “Yeah, sure.” He walks to the door and hesitates before opening it. “Don’t become a recluse because of Evie and Bastian. They’ll come around.”
Do I have a choice?
“Good night, Mari. And please call me Gray.” The door creaks as he closes it, and I’m alone for the first time today.
I hold the ledger to my chest, drawing in a deep breath before placing it on the shelf with the other books. I turn down the quilt and slip beneath the covers, pulling them up just far enough that I can look out the window at the stars above. In the city, although the ceiling above was glass, they always kept the lights on, blocking out the starlight. The stillness settles me as I drift to sleep, deflecting nightmares of the creatures that lurk beyond these walls.