We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Author:Tehlor Kay Mejia [Mejia, Tehlor Kay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Published: 2019-02-26T06:00:00+00:00

14

Though a wife must obey her husband, a husband must respect his wife. In this way, they remain equals in the household, and peace is kept.

—Medio School for Girls Handbook, 14th edition

DANI SPENT THE DAY BEFORE Mateo’s trip to the border watching everyone very closely, sleeping little, and thinking about death.

Whoever she had been talking to, Mama Garcia suspected Dani, and it sounded like she was ready to take drastic measures to make sure she couldn’t harm the family.

What had given her away? Dani wondered for the hundredth time. It was the morning of the trip, and Dani was on her way to catch up on reading in the library, thankful to avoid the breakfast table for once.

In the hush of her favorite room in the house, she sank into an armchair and tried to quiet her thoughts with the heavy volume in her hands: A Hundred Years of Faith—Religion and Culture in Medio. But her mind wouldn’t stay put.

Had it been the unlocked cabinet door in the office? she asked herself. If so, Mateo knew, too, and Dani couldn’t imagine him keeping quiet about it. But a full day had passed, and nothing out of the ordinary had happened. So maybe it had been something else. . . .

Whatever it had been, there were a hundred ways to dispose of a girl who’d committed treason, and as a Garcia, Mateo’s mama must have known them all. So why wait? Why leave Dani to her own devices, run the risk that she might be gathering more information, or passing it?

She thumped her pillow against her mattress in frustration, for once aware of the gaps her training had left in her view of the world. To want to eliminate a threat to one’s family was logical, to seek help in doing it even more so. But to be aware of a threat? To identify it and plan to eliminate it and then . . . do nothing?

It was outside the realm of logic, and illogical things were hard to predict.

On her way down to breakfast, Dani busied herself with the arduous task of forgetting her dreams. The stomping of military boots always welcomed her to sleep, followed by Jasmín’s wind-chime voice screaming as Dani pounded against a locked door. But those visions were only half the problem.

There was also the dream where Carmen moved closer to her across a ballroom with a lacquered floor, removing clothing until she revealed a glittering serpent’s tail, her forked tongue flickering as she leaned in closer to Dani. . . .

“Good morning, Daniela,” came a voice much too close to Dani’s chair. She jumped a little, the open book in her lap closing with a thump.

Dani’s heart kicked into a gallop when she looked up to find Mama Garcia, half in shadow and holding a tea tray. Had she been wrong to expect her to strike at night? Dani wondered hysterically. Why not the middle of the day? Why not now? She forced herself to take even, measured breaths.

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