But for the Mountains (Embers in Wait, #1) by Erin Riha

Author:Erin Riha [Riha, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-942111-64-1
Publisher: REUTS Publications, LLC

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I suppose I should have expected the stares when I enter the classroom the next day, but it’s jarring, just the same. I don’t know what they’ve heard, what they’ve been told. I can’t imagine it was difficult to find out. What, with Declan camped out in my room, doctors in and out, and both CJ and my benefactor escorted from the premises.

The classroom seems larger somehow, though. The space itself hasn’t changed, of course, but it seems different than the last time I was here. It takes a few minutes for me to realize why. More girls are gone: fewer tables, fewer lamps. Everything feels darker and more tense. Only eleven of us remain—myself included—though, at first glance, I can’t tell who else is gone. All I know is that the remaining girls are dressed immaculately and talk amongst themselves in hushed, low voices.

Dean Edina enters, and the room shuffles to a polite din. I sit alone at the table I last shared with Zerah. I’m the only one without a tablemate. Several of the girls around me give me sympathetic, if not haughty looks. Fiona doesn’t even try to disguise her snobbish glee.

“Ladies, good morning!” Dean Edina says, shuffling papers at her podium. “As often happens after our benefactors’ visit, our numbers have been trimmed. We’re a little smaller than is typical at this point in the program, but we are still mighty. I commend each and every one of you for your perseverance and commitment.” The girls share encouraging nods, as if they’ve achieved something praiseworthy by simply being in this room. A few glare at me with wry, knowing grins, their filthy assumptions casting the room in a smutty haze.

“Tara, happily, has agreed to join a delegate from the Swendish Coalition,” she says, applauding a girl who isn’t here. We all join, though some are more enthusiastic than others. “Trina and Anna have decided that their time here is done, and that they were more necessary at home. We will miss them, of course, and I bid them farewell for all of us over the weekend.” Fresh goosebumps cascade down my back as I remember the way Trina recoiled from her benefactor’s touch the other night. Nobody else seems troubled by Trina and Anna’s fate, but then, why would they? They don’t see home as a bad thing, and two girls gone means more access to Declan for them. Dean Edina clears her throat and looks directly at me, letting a too-sympathetic smile purse her lips.

“Let me also be the first to say that I’m so grateful Arden is with us today.” My stomach feels like it’s turned into a rock. Scattered applause shimmies like buckshot in the air, and she nods. “She gave us quite the scare the other night, but I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say we are so grateful to see you up and at ’em again.” I’m greeted with a chorus of nods and some of the phoniest smiles I’ve ever seen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.