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“Look at her face.”
“She gets uglier with every step.”
My eyes sting.
I will not cry. I will not cry.
But then I hear a word from my old nightmares.
“Freak!”
I scour the spectators with a trembling bottom lip, but the laughing faces blend into one through the stream running down my head. Even behind me, I see no sign of the Radiants who decreed my punishment. It’s as though I’m too pitiful for even them to taunt. Not a single person has defended me. All jeer me. Without nobility to remind them to have fun, to laugh, or whatever excuse makes this okay, their taunts descend into vicious insults.
“Ugh. She’s so disgusting I want to puke.”
“No wonder no one likes her.”
Their laughter becomes a chant. “Freak freak freak.”
Hot tears spill from my eyes, but the scalding water makes everything burn. I don’t know how, but the House of Moonlight’s Tower soon appears. I’m almost a full circle along the path around the woods and towers. Someone must have ushered everyone to the next class because the spectators grow thin. When the last person leaves, the shadowed blob of my clothes is only a handful of paces away. It gives me something to focus on instead of the torture.
Almost done.
Almost over.
The stream of water stops, and the cold temperature spreads as I finish the march. It’s getting late. The sky is darkening. Blood and dirt stick to my sore feet. My stomach rumbles, so I must be hungry, but I don’t feel much anymore. I am blue, shivering, and numb all over. I reach for my clothes, but they left me with one final horrifying act of cruelty. The enchantment on my body flees, and I kick the trick mound of dirt.
A raven caws high in the trees. It’s the giant laughing at the spider.
I don’t know what to do. My brain has frozen with my body. Any decision I make is worthless. Alfie was right. I spent my entire time in Crystal City thinking I was special, but I was just a puppet. It wasn’t me they wanted, but my power.
I stare at the dirt. At nothing.
Shuffling nearby should make me lift my head, but I have no energy to care if I’m attacked. Then I hear a familiar voice.
“Chin up, hun. We got you.” Peggy wraps her arms around my front. Geraldine takes the adjacent side, and Max at the rear.
“Group hug,” Geraldine says, a sad smile on her lips.
“So sorry if this is inappropriate,” Max mumbles, but tightens his grip to block the cold.
Everyone shuffles closer. My teeth chatter too hard to speak, but Geraldine turns her sad eyes to me and explains, “It wasn’t fair we made demands of you when we’ve hardly given you anything in return.”
I look at Peggy. “Y-you’re limping again.”
She nods. “I took off the charm.”
“We need to stick together,” Max asserts.
“We sent a message to Peablossom,” Geraldine adds. “Hope that’s okay. Exhibitors are forbidden to bring you replacement clothes, and no one from your House is around.”
Their bodies keep the worst of the cold at bay, but not my emotions. The shivering and chattering makes my sobs feel so much worse, but it’s a letdown of relief. I’m not alone. I have friends.
“T-tell me something,” I chatter. “While we wait. Tell me about your families... back in the old world.”
It starts snowing, but they only cluster around me more tightly, reminding me of Varen the night I fell in the moat. It makes me smile.
“I had a daughter.” Peggy’s voice is small. “She was twenty years old. Such a firecracker. She was always bitching and moaning about something, but anytime I needed her, she was there in a heartbeat. God, I miss her an awful lot.”
