Chapter 6

When I got to the Academy, I checked in and went straight to my dorm.

The small four-person room was already packed. Three roommates had arrived. Their parents were helping them make up their beds.

I said a quick hello and started setting up.

I'd arrived late. By the time they were done and heading out with their parents, I was only halfway through.

The dorm was suddenly empty with only me in it.

Once I finished, the others still weren't back. I figured they'd gone out to eat with their parents. I decided to head to the mess hall on my own.

I'd just grabbed my things when the door opened.

It was all three of them.

They'd just gone to see their parents off.

"First meal of term. Obviously dorm dinner."

They looped their arms through mine and dragged me along to the mess hall.

Later I learned the truth. They'd seen me by myself and didn't want me eating alone. So they'd come back for me.

Something warm lit up inside me.

Being remembered. It was a good feeling.

After First Shift orientation, I found out Caleb and Ivy had gone to a second-tier Academy in the Capital Territory.

Caleb had scored high enough for a top-tier Academy. Ivy hadn't. He'd given up his spot to stay with her.

Not running into them took half my worries off me.

I adjusted to Academy life fast.

Classes and the library. That was my day.

I picked up a tutoring gig. I coached Ranking Trial prep a few nights a week.

My roommates started teasing me. They called me a grinder.

I couldn't sit still.

I'd sat through ninety-nine Ranking Trials to get here.

I was going to enjoy this.

Three full months went by like that.

Then Martha came.

The shelter had a little girl with real musical gift. A family in the Capital Territory wanted to adopt her. Martha had come up to meet them and look over the home.

I picked her up at the Transit Hub and took her to a hotel.

At the entrance, she took my arm.

"This has to cost a lot per night. I don't need something this nice. A small inn is fine."

"No way. Don't worry about money. I've got it. Just stay comfortable."

Martha couldn't win that one. She stayed.

After her meeting, I took her shopping.

At a boutique, I picked out a few dresses and pushed her toward the fitting room.

I turned around.

And I saw Marianne.

A sky-blue dress was draped over her arm. It was the style Ivy always loved. She was buying it for Ivy.

I pulled my eyes off the dress. I pretended not to recognize her. I walked past.

As I passed, I heard her speak.

"Do you really hate me that much?"

I did stop.

When I turned, Marianne's face was full of resentment.

"She's just the matron of a shelter. And you treat her like that. Smiling, picking clothes for her."

"But you see me, and you don't even nod. You just walk away."

"Wren. Did you forget? I'm your real mother."

My eyes dropped back to the dress on her arm.

She was my blood mother.

And she was shopping for someone else.

What right did she have to scold me?

I looked her straight in the eye. My voice had nothing left in it.

"Mrs. Sterling. I think you're confused. I'm not your daughter."

Marianne froze.

Then she let out a long breath.

"It comes back to Ivy. Doesn't it?"

"Wren. Ivy is the pup I raised with my own hands. Even with a house cat, a house dog, you form a bond. How could it be nothing for a person?"

"And her parents are gone. If she leaves us, how is she supposed to survive? Why can't you understand this?"

My fists locked up.

My nails bit into my palms until they went numb.

The thing I had been swallowing down crashed around in my chest like an animal, tearing at my heart.

My voice came out off-pitch when I finally spoke.

"I can't understand it."

Back then, Ivy's mother had sold me to Rogue traffickers. They passed me down the chain to a couple in a remote mountain settlement.

They had no pups.

They'd only bought me because word was I had a brother.

Inside a year, the woman got pregnant. She gave birth to a boy.

I was no longer useful.

What they fed me was gruel and coarse bread. Always.

I slept on straw with a thin towel for a blanket.

In the wet summers the straw bred bugs. I was covered in bites. Not a patch of skin left clean.

In winter the wind tore through the walls. My hands and feet went stiff from the cold.

I had to cook all three meals for that family.

I was five.

I had to stand on a brick to reach the cooking fire. I had to hold the iron turner with both hands to lift the vegetables in the pan.

In the bitter cold I washed their clothes in icy water. My hands were one endless chilblain.

Every night, I cried in silence.

I didn't understand why parents could do this to a pup.

Then one night I overheard them. They were going to sell me again, for the money.

That was how I learned I wasn't theirs. I had been taken.

Maybe there is such a thing as payback.