Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Before I can get a word out, Taurance yanks me into her chest. “We thought you’d left!”
“Without us,” Gem adds with a grunt.
“Never.” I wrap my limp arms around Taurance to pat her back before she gently shoves me away. “I wouldn’t go back on our promise. If we leave, we leave together.”
Taurance’s lips thin as she turns to stand side by side with her sister.
Rarely are the twins’ similarities on display.
Taurance’s waist-length locks, husky voice, and less-is-more approach to clothing stand in contrast with her soft-spoken twin, who keeps her raven hair close-cropped and her body hidden beneath several layers.
But seeing them stand before me now—their arms folded and jade irises hooded in scrutiny—the resemblance is unmistakable.
Together, they block off the narrow path between our off-kilter dining table and the partition curtains concealing our washroom. Taurance tugs on a chair, gesturing for me to sit. I’m eager to comply, if only to have the chance to lean back and rub at my closed lids.
“What took you so long?” Taurance presses while Gem disappears behind the curtains. “You’ve never gotten back past curfew.”
I pause the massage long enough to peek at the sand clock we keep on the center of the table. It’s been flipped upside down, reset to track the daylight hours. Few particles dust the bottom of the glass. It couldn’t have been flipped for long—maybe a minute or two.
I point out, “I got back right at curfew. Not past it.”
Gem tosses a damp washcloth at my face. “The last grain of evening hours fell nearly a full minute before your hand touched the door.”
I wrap the cloth around my neck, and the warmth of it eases the stiff knot of tension. A satisfied groan escapes me. “I was with the guard, and it’s not like he’d arrest me.”
My fingertips halt on my brow bone. That might not be true anymore. Whatever we had is over. If he were to catch me out past curfew now, would a purist like him really think twice about detaining me?
A second chair scrapes against stone. I don’t have to open my eyes to know it’s Taurance. Her vanilla-almond body oil cloys at my senses, triggering a fresh wave of throbbing behind my right eye.
“What happened?”
Squinting through my heavy lids, I admit, “I picked another bad mark.”
“Lousy kisser?” Taurance asks, leaning over to brush the stray curls from my forehead.
“No. I mean, his kisses felt more like mucus exchanges, but nothing I couldn’t acclimate to over time.”
Gem makes a sound like she’s holding back bile as she perches along the table’s edge.
Taurance waves off her sister’s dramatics. “Was he not interested in taking it further, then?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Oh, he was very interested, but only if he could get a release without attachments.”
“What?” Gem jumps to her feet. “Did he hurt you?”
Taurance’s black brows lift, wrinkling the smooth, pale skin of her forehead.
“No. He stopped as soon as I made it clear that I’m looking for an engagement, not a casual entanglement. He said he couldn’t do that to his wife.”
A huff escapes Taurance’s scowling pink lips. “So, he has no problem burying himself inside you as long as you don’t try replacing his buried wife?”
Gem swats Taurance’s shoulder. “Sun’s pits, T! That’s bleak. He’s a widower.”
“A horny widower,” Taurance corrects, then pats my leg. “You really are awful at picking ’em.”
“In my defense, there aren’t many options for a thirty-year-old disabled divorcee. I was hoping his neglected libido would override his grief. How was I supposed to know he’d have that much willpower still in him?”
Taurance leans in to ask, “What happened after you dashed his dreams of getting under your skirt?”
Gem groans, turning away to raid our cupboards.
“I told him the truth.”
A cabinet door slams. “You did what?”
I shift in my chair, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my dress. “On the way back, he admitted he knew about my condition and offered to go slower. That’s more empathy than I normally get. I thought if I told him why I wanted to get engaged, maybe he’d get it.”
“You told a Guard of the Gate you wanted out of the Hunt?” Gem asks from across the room, pale cheeks flushing.
Taurance’s palm presses against my forehead. “Are you sick?”
I swat her away. “Not any more than usual.”
“Dehydrated, then. Did you drink enough water today?”
Taking her sister’s cue, Gem rushes back to the washroom, sending the partition curtains billowing.
Ignoring the sudden, acute awareness of my tongue’s dryness, I argue, “I drank plenty.”
“Drink up.” Gem reappears with a mug in hand. The cracked ceramic thumps onto the table.
“Yes, Mother,” I jibe without thinking.
Gem’s face falls, and mine follows suit.
“By the shadows, Gem, I’m so sorry.”
Her frown breaks into a lopsided grin. “Gotcha!”
I flick the damp washcloth at Gem, and she ducks behind Taurance, who’s watching us with a halfhearted smile.
“Your sister is cruel,” I tease, but my smile falters as I take a better look at Taurance. Her green eyes glisten brighter than usual, which only happens when she’s on the brink of tears. The levity falls from my lips as the moment passes. “What’s wrong, Taur?”
She stands up from her chair, gliding over to her cot at the back of the cabin.
My gaze darts to Gem, lifting a brow in a silent question.
She shakes her head, then moves to follow her sister. “It was a joke, T.”
“It’s not that,” Taurance says, fetching a folded parchment from beneath her cot. Gem and I step in closer to get a better look while she unfolds the paper with shaky hands. “I found out earlier tonight, but I wanted to wait until we were all together.”
“Wait for what?” Gem asks, eying the parchment. “Is it from Ma?”
“No.” Taurance cradles the paper close to her chest.
I lower myself onto the cot beside her, rubbing circles on the small of her back. “Your mystery suitor, then?”
“No. It’s, um . . .” She blinks, sending two beads of tears rushing down her flushed cheeks.
Gem nudges her sandaled foot into her sister’s. “Come on, T. You’re scaring me.”
“I’m—” Taurance sniffles, then tries again. “I’m pregnant.”
Gem goes completely still at the barely audible confession.
My hand pauses on Taurance’s back. “What?”
“I’m pregnant,” she repeats, turning the paper around to reveal the official declaration of pregnancy signed off on by the Department of Midwifery. “I heard their heartbeat. A hundred sixty beats per minute.”
“Taur!” I wrap both arms around her shoulders. “This is good news, right?”
I may be childless by force—thanks to my defective body—and Gem by choice, but Taur’s longing to be a mother has only grown in the years since we first decided to room together.
A weighted smile stretches across Taurance’s face as she nods, glancing up at her twin who’s yet to budge an inch. “It is, but this means I won’t be able to go with you.”
I wrap my fingers around Taur’s, attention drifting to the satchels leaning against the kitchen cupboard.
Over the past few nights, we’ve packed a few bags of hazelnuts, a loaf of sourdough, an old wine bottle refilled with water, and a few other essentials in case my plan of wooing the widower fell through.
“What if we stay? Take our chances. We’ve made it this far without our names being called. You’re ineligible now, Taur. And Gem, this is only your sixth year of eligibility. Maybe they won’t—”
“Ten,” Gem says, tone thick. “This is your tenth year of eligibility, Orelle. If you don’t leave today, you will be drafted.”
Few who make it into the double digits escape the Hunt. Our entries double with every year of eligibility, and the system heavily skews towards candidates who’ve aged past their twenties. It’s a bitter truth we usually refrain from acknowledging aloud.
My voice breaks as I counter, “You don’t know that.”
A muscle flexes in Gem’s jaw. “We have to leave.”
“No, we don’t.” I rise to my feet, folding my arms across my chest. “I’m not going without meeting Taurance’s child. That baby will need their aunties. Taur will need us.”
Delicate fingers wrap around my wrist. “I need you alive. If not for my sake, then for Gem’s. Once the baby is here, we won’t be allowed in the same cabin anymore. You’re going, even if Gem has to drag you all the way to Deor.”
The twins share a loaded look, and Gem swallows hard before dipping her chin.
“I’ll join you.” Taurance glances at her stomach. “As soon as she or he is born and we’re both recovered from birth.”
I droop back onto the cot, shoulders hunching forward. “What about the father? Won’t he want you to stay here?”
Taurance fidgets with the shorn hem of her sleeping gown. “I’m not entirely sure who the father is.”
The space between Gem’s brows creases. “How many contenders are there?”
“Two,” Taurance says, head down as she picks at a loose thread.
“Shit, T. You really want to follow in Ma’s footsteps?”
I stiffen. The twins rarely speak of their mother, though I’ve gleaned enough to know she’d gotten pregnant out of wedlock after sleeping her way into the beds of several male suitors and placed the blame of her disheveled life on her daughters, as if they’d chosen to be born into the lower rungs of society.
Taurance meets her sister’s scolding gaze. “I will never be like Ma. You think you’re so superior because you’re a virgin, but at least I won’t die alone.”
“Woah there, Taur.” I rest a palm on her leg, but she brushes it off. “I doubt she meant it like that.”
Gem shakes her head. “That’s exactly how I meant it.”
“Go piss yourself above,” Taurance spits back.
I insert myself between the galling green gazes of the twins.
“Enough! You know Taur is nothing like your Ma. She’s gonna spoil that baby every single day of its life.
Smother it in far too much love, the way she smothers us.
” I shift my glower from Gem to Taurance.
“And just because Gem has no interest in sleeping with anyone does not mean she’ll die alone.
We’re her family: me, you, and a niece or nephew who honestly might prefer their Auntie Gem over their own mother sometimes.
So, let’s not waste our last couple hours together exchanging low blows, hm? You’re making my brain hurt.”
I kick off my sandals and scoot further onto the cot, releasing a heavy exhale.
Taurance is the first to surrender. She scoots closer to me, patting at the space on her other side. “Truce?”
It’s a few tense seconds before Gem breaks. “Truce.”
The cot’s thin mattress deflates as she joins us, but I don’t mind. This might be the last time the three of us are together, at least for a while.
Or for good.
I shoo away the thought.
Soon, Gem and I will sneak up to the transport tunnels while the city’s sleeping. We’ll slip past the guards by taking the utility stairwell instead of the main path. And we’ll make it to Deor right before sunset.
Our plan will work.
Because if it doesn’t, my name will be chosen for the Hunt.
There’s no way of knowing that with absolute certainty, yet the knot that’s been festering in my chest doesn’t doubt it’s true. It’s that same intuition that haunted me in the days prior to the divorce—a deep knowing that something’s about to change.
I pull out the blade of marram grass from my pocket, desperately praying that change will be for the better this time, not the worse.