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It was easy to forget that Cherie had grown up poor and freezing in the forests of Freesia To her, the caravan was a life of warmth and wealth and security And I had taken that fro in the scent of pine and vanilla, her favorite shampoo, I felt a rush of love for the first person who’d reached out to me when I arrived in Criry She’d huggedirls
When I looked at her, I saw onlyI’d ever had to a sister Golden curls, eyes too innocent for a Bludwoman, pink cheeks, and an upturned nose She looked like a little shepherdess doll But to her, the University of Ruin represented untold wealth and opportunity Most likely, no one in her entire family had ever been to university, much less a woman I would have to re didn’t have the sort of freedouess I thought that once I left ho would be different That I would et a boyfriend and do well in ht life would be as pretty as it looked in the brochures I thought that just getting away fro better"
"It didn’t?"
"Nope Kind of the opposite"
The Pinky gentlee watched our whispered closeness with an unhealthy fascination, a creepy gleas at hie, if not killed Instead, I pulled my head away from Cherie and locked eyes with the older , he cleared his throat juicily and looked away The prim nursemaid beside hiirl of about seventeen The girl gave us an innocent, hopeful sht have looked her age, but I enty-six, and Cherie enty-seven There were benefits to being bludded, after all
"Well, I think it’s important that we--"
I never found out as i as the scent of fire reached my sensitive nose Cherie’s head whipped around, her eyes wide and alert The coach shuddered with sudden violence, throwing us against each other and the walls Fla into the stuffy, airless space The gentleled us earlier threw open the door and froze, before tued in his jabot I leaped out, tugging Cherie behind irl behind us clutched at her nurse with one hand and the carriage seat with the other and screaot myself and turned to hiss at her, which really only ly hysterical
A loud screech outside caughtsures appeared in the haze, and I tried to run in the opposite direction Cherie was motionless, stiff with fear
"Run, you idiot!" I hissed
"I--I can’t"
The figures hovered closer, dark arures with torches could ever cal oddamn predator, Cherie Act like it Run"
"You start I’ll follow"
"Prohed out black s, burning, screaed into the waist-high grass of the moors Arroacked over rass and into a thick pricker bush that would have torn apart anyone not wearing so many layers of city clothes
"Co for Cherie to follow irl in the coach and the blud, the sound of fire, and the thrashing of the grass as the cloaked figures huntedI didn’t dare peek up or call out for Cherie I would have to hope that her inner strength had overco soray sky I was one of the few people who understood Cherie’s quiet tenacity and power, and I prayed it wouldn’t fail her now
The screa of the conveyance and the eerie whispering of the wind in the grass I took a deep breath, trying to scent Cherie, but only smoke and charredquieted, I rubbed my ears It tookas the vehicle moved rapidly away I stood in a crouch and found only a trail of exhaust lingering over the road The , dark, andI’d seen since co
"Cherie?"
The only sound that reachedbodies around it I was about to rush over and hunt for Cherie when I heard the loud, nasal sound of a horn
I dropped to the ground, the adrenaline finally running out and leavinghuer in its mouth The next one stopped byan ear
"Keep it," I muttered "I’m not that desperate" I started to sit up and fell back, dizzy