The Grace Year(21)

“I heard it’s because they’re deformed,” Tamara says, a dark tone to her voice. “They have giant mouths full of razor-sharp teeth.”

“I bet they’re not even out there,” Martha says. “We haven’t seen them or heard them this entire time. They probably just tell us that to scare us.”

“But why?” Ravenna asks, clinging to her veil, the scratchy sound of the netting grating between her fingertips.

I inch closer. Maybe I’m not the only one with doubts.

“So we don’t escape,” Kiersten says. “They can’t have us running wild with all that magic … all that power.” She leans forward, lowering her voice. “I feel it happening already. There’s a tingling deep inside of me, right here,” she says as she opens her cloak, stretching out her fingers below her navel.

A flutter of excitement rushes through the group, the same as when the blades are being sharpened in the square before a punishment.

“I can’t wait to find out what my magic will be,” Jessica says, sitting up a little taller.

“I heard speaking to animals runs in our family.” Dena looks to Kiersten for approval.

“Maybe I’ll be able to command the wind,” another girl says, spreading her arms out wide.

“Or be impervious to fire.” Meg runs her finger through a lick of flame.

“There now,” Kiersten shushes them as she looks over at the guards. “We mustn’t get carried away. Not just yet.”

“What are you hoping for?” Jenna nudges Kiersten gently with her knee. “Please tell us.”

“Do tell…,” the other girls join in.

“I want…” She pauses dramatically to make sure they’re hanging on every word. “I want to be able to control people with my thoughts. Lead them to their rightful path … deliver them from sin, so we can burn through our magic and return purified women.”

Gertrude lets out a huff of air. I’m not sure if it’s a sigh, a yawn, or a chortle, but Kiersten glares at her from across the fire. “Maybe even you can be pure again, Gertie.”

The muscles in Gertrude’s jaw flex, but that appears to be the only reaction Kiersten will get out of her.

“And what about you, Betsy?” Kiersten turns her attention to the girl sitting next to Gertrude. The next-closest target.

“Me?” She looks around the campfire as if searching for a witness.

“Is there another Betsy Dillon?” Kiersten asks. “What magic are you hoping for?”

“Not to be so big and ugly?” One of the girls snickers.

Kiersten smacks her in the leg.

Even in the dim light, I can see the heat taking over Betsy’s cheeks; she’s either embarrassed or flattered that Kiersten is paying attention to her. “I … I want to fly, like a bird,” she says as she looks up into the treetops.

“Fat chance,” someone murmurs; Kiersten shushes her.

“And why’s that?” Kiersten asks sweetly. Too sweetly.

“So I can fly far far away,” Betsy says, a dreamy look coming over her.

“Trust me.” Kiersten narrows in on her. “We all want you to fly far far away.”

The other girls let out a burst of pent-up laughter.

With tears streaming down Betsy’s face, Kiersten turns her back on her and continues talking to the others.

Gertrude reaches over to try to console her, but Betsy jerks her hand away and gets up, bolting into the woods.

“What’d I tell you,” the guard with the dark mustache says as he watches her run off. “The Dillon girl.”

“Every year…,” the other guard says as he digs two coins out of his pocket and hands them over. “I don’t know how you do it.”

I’m about to go after her, tell her to ignore them, when I hear it—a high-pitched yelp. Followed by another. And then another, all coming from different points in the wood. A classic call and response. At first, I think it must be a pack of wolves, but then I hear it again, closer this time, followed by coarse laughter. I don’t need anyone to tell me that’s the call of the poachers. And they’re herding her.

I look to the guards to do something, but they’re just going about their business of settling in for the night.

“You have to go after her,” I say.

The taller one shrugs me off. “If you run, we’re not responsib—”

“But she’s not running away … she just wanted to cry … in private.”

“Don’t stray from the path. Those are the rules—”

“But no one told us … no one said—”

“Shouldn’t you just know?” he says, looking me over, shaking his head.

I start to go after her, but then I hear screams. Bloodcurdling screams, echoing through the woods. It feels like the sound is penetrating straight through my skin, sinking deep into my bones, freezing them in place.

“Did you see what I made her do?” Kiersten whispers to Jenna. Jenna then whispers it to Jessica. And just like that, news of Kiersten’s magic spreads like wildfire.

As I glance back at the girls, their faces lit by the flames, inky shadows nestling into the hollows of their skulls, they look to Kiersten, a mix of fear and reverence taking over.