Garnet's Story by Amy Ewing

Author:Amy Ewing
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-08-05T04:00:00+00:00

Eight

I STAY UP ALL NIGHT, SITTING IN MY PARLOR, STARING AT the arcana cupped in my hands, willing it to buzz.

Is she okay? What happened? Am I in trouble? Should I have foreseen this? Was I too busy sulking about my engagement to notice something was wrong? Will Lucien release the details of my tryst with Cyan? Does Annabelle hate me?

Questions repeat themselves over and over again, a revolving circle of the same thoughts and fears.

How did this happen to me? Here I am, completely frazzled over the welfare of a surrogate. I don’t think I could even tell you what any other surrogate I’ve ever seen looks like. Blond, brunette, redhead . . . they are like dolls, dolls with blurry faces who don’t matter because who are they anyway? Nothing. Property. But Lucien’s face. And Annabelle . . .

I don’t even know her name. Do they have names? I think they’re given numbers for the Auction. Maybe they’re born with numbers. Are they even born in the normal way? I’ve never seen them as truly human until I heard the girl cry out in pain tonight.

Am I a terrible person?

Pale gray light seeps under the curtains, the sign of a new day beginning. I rouse myself and am just about to give up and get into bed, when the silver tuning fork buzzes and rises up out of my palm.

“Is she okay?” I ask, before he has a chance to speak.

There is the faintest pause on the other end, and I think maybe I’ve surprised him in some way.

“Yes,” he says, and he sounds impossibly weary. “She will live.”

I exhale, and it feels like a breath I’ve been holding all night. My head buzzes with relief.

“That’s good,” I say.

“It is.” Again, there’s a hint of surprise in his voice.

“What?” I demand, too tired and frazzled to be polite. “Did you think I didn’t care? Do you think I’m not human?”

“No,” he replies. “I think you are royal.”

I sense a veiled insult but I don’t understand it.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you do not see the world the way most of the people in this city see it.”

I frown. “This city loves the royalty.”

Lucien chuckles through his weariness. “Oh, Garnet,” he says. “You know nothing of this city. You know the Jewel and the Bank. The Jewel tolerates you because of your high status and the Bank loves you because you sell papers.”

No one has ever, ever, spoken to me this way. I open my mouth to set him straight and let him know who is who in this relationship, but then all the air seeps out of me and I realize he’s right.

I’m nothing. I’m a very fancy, very expensive waste of time.

“Why did you even ask for my help, then?” I say.

He sighs. “I did not ask you. I blackmailed you.”

Right. I dig my knuckles into my eyes.

“Lucien, what is so important about this girl? Why do you care about her so much?”

“What makes you think

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