AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s tricky,” Pryana says, her eyes glued on mine. “Alteration does funny things to abilities. But I don’t understand why you didn’t tell her the truth about your retrieval.”
“Why would I tell her the truth?” I reply as I pace the small space in front of the icebox.
“Because you hate Cormac,” Pryana says. “He’s the only one who gains anything by your keeping it from her.”
So Pryana does know what Cormac did to my sister. “Amie gains something.”
“And what’s that?” Pryana asks.
“Innocence.”
“Her innocence was robbed from her long ago,” Pryana says, and her tone reminds me that Cormac and the Guild have robbed it from us all.
“She doesn’t know that, though,” I say in a quiet voice. “I can’t quite explain it. If I tell her why she can’t remember and about what happened to our parents, she has to live with that.”
“We all have to live with that,” Pryana reminds me.
“Yeah, we do, but she’s my kid sister. Someday she’ll know. I won’t be able to keep it from her forever. But right now she feels safe. She doesn’t have nightmares. She doesn’t blame herself.”
“And you would rather she blame you?”
I take a deep breath, willing myself to broach a sensitive subject. “Wouldn’t you do that for your sister?”
“I don’t know,” Pryana admits. Her voice shakes. “The Guild took her from me before I had the chance.”
“You could have told Amie the truth. Why didn’t you?”
Pryana hesitates as she twists her fingers together. “I’m not sure. It’s not my place.”
“Why are you being kind to Amie?”
“I don’t have a sister to be nice to anymore,” she says, opening the old wound we share. I’d lost my innocence about the nature of our world long before the day Maela ripped Pryana’s sister and her classmates from their Cypress academy.
“Blame Maela,” I say.
“I do blame Maela,” she says, practically spitting the words at me. “Did it seem like we were best friends back there?”
I give her a grudging no. It sounds like whatever passed between them in my absence was as bad as what I’d endured under Maela. It also feels like Pryana still resents me.
“It’s Cormac,” Pryana says at last. “Maela hates anyone who catches Cormac’s attention.”
“And you were engaged to him,” I say.
“Briefly.” She shrugs. “I’m not exactly sorry to be rid of him. It was only a way out of here.”
“You didn’t want to be Creweler?” I ask, not hiding my surprise.
“I thought I did, but…” Pryana trails off. Her dark eyes meet mine. She doesn’t need to finish the thought. We both know the burdens of being Creweler.
“All of this over a scumbag like Cormac Patton,” I say.
“I was surprised you didn’t know.”
“I hadn’t seen Maela for a long time. I thought she was mad about Erik.”
“Don’t get me wrong. She still hates you more than me, and Erik has a lot to do with that,” Pryana says.
“How would she know about what happened between Erik and me?”
