“Girls,” Mother Shade said. “This is Number Thirty-Two. You may look at her.”
Thirty-one heads swiveled in my direction. Thirty-one pairs of eyes raked over me—some sympathetic, some calculating.
Why even bother introducing me? I wondered. I was just another number. No identity. No name. Just something to be ground into submission.
Anger simmered in my veins. I fought to keep myself from showing it.
“Goodnight, girls,” Mother Shade said, and then she rang a bell hanging over the door.
The rest of the Chosen moved as one. They pulled back the sheets on the beds and climbed beneath them. The lights winked out, leaving us in darkness.
My mattress was hard, and the pillow flat as a blanket, but I’d been sleeping in the wilderness for weeks. I hardly minded. I lay on my back with the sheet swirled around me like cool river water, staring at the ceiling above and listening to the other girls breathe.
When Mother Shade’s footsteps faded, and the guard had closed the door behind her, I rolled onto my side and found the girl in the bed next to me watching. She had smooth brown skin and thick, curly hair that framed her face. Her eyes were golden-brown and full of sympathy.
“Welcome to hell,” she whispered, her voice barely audible in the silence. “What’s your name?”
“Red,” I answered, moving my lips and scarcely making a sound. “Yours?”
“Enna,” she replied. “Or as they call me, Thirty-One.” She rolled her eyes. “Bastards.”
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“A week. Hence my status. We all start at the bottom.” She paused and glanced over her shoulder before leaning closer to me. “Where are you from, Red?”
“A village far away from here.” I sighed.
“Leave anybody behind?”
Kassian.
No. Not him. He didn’t count. He couldn’t count. I couldn’t hold onto delusions.
“My grandmother,” I said after a pause.
“No boyfriend or fiancé, then? Maybe you’re lucky,” Enna whispered. “Maybe you’ll find something to like about this place. A new life.”
Her voice was bitter.
“I had a boyfriend,” I said. “Until he found out I was Chosen. Then, he tried to kill me.”
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “They killed mine when he tried to stop them from taking me. We were going to be married in the spring. His name was Alex.”
I reached across the space between our beds and rested my fingers on her mattress an inch from her hand.
“I…” I didn’t have words. I was angry and sorry and horrified. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s those bastards who’re going to be sorry,” she said, and then we heard footsteps approaching the door, and we both rolled over and closed our eyes before the guard looked in.
Enna’s whispered question reverberated in my thoughts for a long time after.
Leave anybody behind?
No, someone had left me behind.
Pain swept through my chest so fiercely that it hurt to breathe. Kassian, my Kassian, alive all these years.
No. Kassian was dead. It was only Vixor Rae now. The Silver Wolf. And he’d left me behind, too.
Somehow, despite the pain in my heart, I finally fell asleep.
CHAPTER THREE
THE SOUND OF the bell woke me abruptly from a nightmare about treecrawlers lunging toward Kassian and me through misty darkness. I bolted upright, tangled in my sheet like a drowning girl, confused and disoriented. Light streamed through the windows. The other young women were already out of bed and fixing the sheets and pillows so that all evidence of their sleep was gone.
Enna, the girl from last night, already had her bed made.
“Quick,” Enna hissed at me. “Get up before Mother Shade comes in, or she’ll punish you.”
I untangled myself from the sheet and set my bare feet on the cold floor. I stood and turned to pull the sheets tight across the mattress. My heart thudded as I stretched to smooth the wrinkles and knelt to tuck the sheets.
“Hurry, hurry,” Enna whispered.
The door opened.
I had just finished straightening my pillow when Mother Shade strode inside the room. She scanned the line of beds, her mouth puckering, her eyes narrowing as if looking for some excuse to complain. The Chosen stood ramrod-straight beside their mattresses, eyes fixed on the floor, hands clasped.
I did the same. My head felt fuzzy from my abrupt rising, and my eyes were dry and achy. I resisted the urge to rub them.
“Number Thirty-Two,” Mother Shade called.
“Yes, Mother Shade,” I said. I didn’t look at her. That might be a trap.
“I’m impressed. You managed to rise and make your bed like the other girls on your first day. You will receive points for that.”
I was silent.
Her steps echoed as she crossed the room to stand in front of me.
“Thank me,” she said.
I was startled enough to forget to keep looking at the ground. I lifted my head, and she slapped me across the face.
“Thank me,” she ordered again.
I dropped my eyes and drew in a deep, furious breath. “Thank you, Mother Shade.”
“Hmm,” she said. “I sense a little defiance still in you. We will have to work on that, won’t we?”
“Yes, Mother Shade.”
I hated her.
With every cell in my body, I hated her.
Mother Shade strode back across the room, pausing to inspect several beds and the girls beside them along the way.
“Number Twenty,” I heard her say in a severe tone. “What is that?”
“N-nothing,” the girl replied shakily.
There came a rustling sound, and then the thump of something heavy hitting the floor.
“Books? You are hiding books beneath your pillow?”
“J-just the one, Mother Shade.”
I sneaked a look from of the corner of my eye and saw a slender, red-haired Chosen girl shivering as she stood before Mother Shade’s scowling figure. At her feet was a large, leather-bound tome.
“Pick it up,” Mother Shade commanded.
The girl hasted to obey.
“Open it to the first page,” Mother Shade said.
The girl’s fingers fumbled with the book. She opened it.
Mother Shade reached down and tore the page out. The girl gasped involuntarily.
“Open your mouth,” Mother Shade snapped.
The girl trembled. She opened her mouth, and Mother Shade stuffed the page inside.
“Eat it,” she said.
The girl closed her jaws around the crumpled wad of paper. Her eyes were wide and frightened.
“Chew!” Mother Shade said.
The only sound in the room was the raspy wet sound of the girl moving the paper around in her mouth.
“Swallow it.”
The girl swallowed and coughed. “May-may I have some water, Mother Shade?”
“No. Eat another page.”
The girl’s hand shook. She tore out another page, crumpled it, and put it in her mouth. Her cheek bulged as she chewed.
“You will have no food or water until you’ve eaten that entire book,” Mother Shade said.
The girl gave a little sob. “Yes, Mother Shade.”