Grace and Fury (Grace and Fury #1)(14)

“Let it go. You’re lucky the Superior didn’t punish you too,” she said.

Nomi should have been the one punished. It was her book. Her crime. “The book… it wasn’t—” she began, tremors snaking through her body.

“Your sister took responsibility for her actions,” Ines interrupted. “Nothing you say will change her fate.”

“But—”

“Nothing. It is done.” Ines’s eyes filled with an unspoken warning. If Nomi told the truth, Serina would be exposed as a liar, and that held its own punishment. “Now all you can do is stop asking questions and follow the rules. This is your life now, whether you like it or not.”

Then she disappeared through the doorway, leaving Nomi, shattered, in her wake.





SEVEN



SERINA


THE BOAT PITCHED, slamming Serina and the other prisoners hard against the slippery metal rail. Her body ached from the constant push and pull on her bound wrists, which were fixed to a rusted ring just below the rail. Tears joined the film of seawater on her cheeks as she twisted to watch the glow of Bellaqua shrink behind her.

She’d expected the Superior to punish her; a woman reading was a serious offense. But she hadn’t expected this.

Nothing felt real, except for the pain in Serina’s arms and the cold ocean spray burning her face. All her life, she’d been afraid of what Nomi’s rebellion might mean. A broken law, a merciless punishment.

Serina had never imagined, not once, that she would be the one led off in chains.

Nomi’s crime had cost her everything.

The girl beside Serina was crying so hard, her gasps sounded like choking.

One of the guards paused on his rounds, right behind the sobbing girl. “Shut it, or I’ll throw you overboard.”

The girl tried to be quiet, but she couldn’t quite manage it. The guard reached for her. Serina’s shackled hands strained toward the girl, as if somehow she could stop whatever was about to happen.

“What, you can’t handle a little crying?” a rough-edged voice called from down the line. “Obviously she’s terrified. Isn’t that what you want? To scare us? Punish us?”

The guard rushed down the slick deck, growling, “I’ll punish you.”

But as he reached her, he went down, landing hard on his back.

Serina craned around and caught a glimpse of brown skin and a defiant glare.

“Try,” the girl said. “You wouldn’t be the first. But I didn’t back down before, and I won’t now.” She held her ground, even when the guard stumbled to his feet and backhanded her across the face.

Serina and the rest of the prisoners watched in awe. Women didn’t speak like that to men. They didn’t stand up for themselves. Or… or they ended up here, Serina thought, stomach sinking.

The crying girl’s sobs rose again, the gagging sounds more pronounced this time. The guard turned to her.

Desperately, Serina bumped the girl’s arm. “Hey. What’s your name?”

The girl shook her head, wiping her dirty face against her shoulder.

“Talk to me,” Serina cajoled, watching the guard from the corner of her eye. “It’ll distract you.”

“Jacana,” the girl said, just loudly enough to be heard over the deafening pulse of the boat’s steam engine.

“Pretty name,” Serina said. “That’s a kind of bird, right?”

The girl nodded, her wild hair whipping against her bone-white cheeks. Her breathing was ragged, but her sobs had subsided.

“I’m Serina.”

The girl nodded again, a little color returning to her face.

Something out beyond the ship caught Serina’s eye. Faint at first, folded into a blanket of cloud. As they approached, an island emerged, gray and scarred. A black mass rose from its center and disappeared into the pink-tinged haze. A volcano.

Like every other child in Viridia, Serina knew the story of Mount Ruin. Long ago, the island had been called Isola Rossa. Its coasts had been home to expensive retreats for Viridia’s wealthy, designed to look like royal buildings that had been destroyed in the Floods. When the volcano had erupted, sending endless waves of lava and fatal gases pouring down upon the lush beachfront buildings, thousands had been caught in the cataclysm. Most had died, buried under lava and ash, choked by the poisonous air, or drowned off the unforgiving coast.

Isola Rossa had become Mount Ruin.

The island had been abandoned, a blackened memorial to the many lives lost, until the current Superior’s father had reclaimed it as a prison for women. Serina had always assumed those sent here were the most depraved of Viridia. She’d never, even in a nightmare, dreamed she’d be one of them.

The boat slammed into a chipped stone pier, the impact driving the prisoners to their knees. Jacana cried out. Serina’s voice was caught in her chest, trapped between her laboring lungs and pounding heart.

The guards went down the two lines of prisoners, releasing their restraints from the rusted rings. Serina’s hands dropped like rocks, still weighted by the shackles.

She stared at her wrists as if they belonged to a stranger. A week ago, she’d been confident that she could charm the Heir, that she could make her mother proud, that she could secure Nomi and herself a future in the palace. Nothing had happened as she’d expected. How many shocks would it take before her heart could bear no more?