Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Author:Lauren DeStefano
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Linden seems to have no idea that I sustained these injures trying to run away from him.

“I told him you were in the garden when the storm came,” Jenna whispers one afternoon, while Linden sleeps with his arms wrapped protectively around my elbow. “I saw you go out the window. What were you doing?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “Whatever it was, I failed.”

She looks like she wants to hug me, but she can’t because it’s painful enough for me just to lie there and be looked at. “Did he believe you?” I ask.

“Governor Linden did despite the broken window. I don’t know about Housemaster Vaughn. Everyone in the kitchen said they saw you out in the garden before the storm, and that you were trying to get back inside when you heard the alarm. I think that might have convinced him.”

“They did that?” I say.

She smiles a little, tucks my hair behind my ear. “They must like you. Especially Gabriel.”

Gabriel! His blue eyes stabbing through the frenzy.

His arms opening up. I remember crashing into him. I remember feeling safe, before the world disappeared into nothingness.

“He came after me,” I say.

“Half the house went after you,” she says. “Even Governor Linden. He took a few hits from some flying branches.”

Linden. Bruised and sleeping at my side. There’s a little blood dribbling from the corner of his lips. I brush it away with my finger.

“I thought you were dead,” she says. “Gabriel carried you into the kitchen and it looked like every bone in your body was broken.”

“Pretty close,” I say.

“Cecily was screaming her head off, and it took three attendants to drag her up to her room. The Housemaster told her she was going to miscarry if she didn’t quiet down. But she’s fine, of course. You know how she gets.”

“What happened to Gabriel?” I say. I haven’t seen him since waking up. I still don’t know how much time has passed.

Linden mumbles in his sleep, startling me. He nuz-zles his face against my shoulder, and I wait for his eyes to open, but his breathing remains deep and even with sleep.

Jenna, whose eyes are suddenly serious, leans close to me. Although we’re already whispering, she wants to be extra sure nobody will hear us. “I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but be careful. Okay? I think Housemaster Vaughn suspects something.”

Vaughn. Just mention of him makes my blood go cold.

I haven’t spoken to anyone about what he said about Rose, partly because the memory is so fuzzy that I can’t delineate fact from dream, but also because I’m afraid of what he’ll do. I force him out of my mind.

I don’t know how to answer Jenna because I don’t know what’s going on between me and Gabriel. And suddenly all I can think of is the fear that makes Gabriel go rigid when Vaughn is nearby. Is it because he’s been threatened? I swallow something painful. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. Just a little scratched up. He’s been in a few times, but you were asleep.

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