Page 10 (1/2)
The following sunrise, things at the palace went crazy The new dusting of snow covered the events from the day before, but Cassie knew tooher froht before It had taken forever for her to drift off to sleep Kahli hadn&039;t returned and neither had her other roo&039;s chambers and didn&039;t come back
Cole found his sister as early as possible, and beckoned her into thearea The white couches were e the ere pulled back, revealing the earlythe illusion that it wasn&039;t freezing cold outside At one time the world was a beautiful place At one ti was a glittering tomb
Her brother was dressed neatly, as usual Cassie barely had time to pull on a pair of jeans and a sweater She was always cold, always shivering As they sat, she wrung her fingers, twisting theet warm Cole watched her, and when she didn&039;t stop, he pulled out a pair of thin gloves froratefully accepted them and slid the fabric over her hands They were instantly warmer
"Thank you," she said "You always knohat to do"
"I&039;m not so sure, this time, Cass" In hushed tones, Cole and Cassie whispered Cole filled in the pieces of infor from Cassie&039;s mind Eventually he said, "The Queen ant to speak to you, you know She&039;ll find out that the King went to your chale one of the girls was one of your roo"
Cassie nodded, fearing asinto her face She tucked them back and looked up at her brother "I know I&039;"
He nodded, "And, you&039;re the only proof that the King was consuht I seriously doubt that he left a blood trail for theht If I hadn&039;t seen you - "
Cassie stared blankly ahead at the dark blue walls, only half listening She blurted out the question lurking in the back of her mind, the one she was too afraid to ask, "Do you think they&039;re dead?" Her voice caught on the wordher heart constrict
Cole looked at his sister Death was a part of life Their kind dealt with it frequently A siile existence But, no one expected anything like this Palace huet brutalized by the royalty "I don&039;t know"
Alice entered the rooh the halls like she was lost Cassie felt bad for the girl and called to her, "What&039;s the matter, Alice?"
Alice stopped, surprised to hear her name and turned back She walked over to them and stood in front of Cassie and Cole Her nor It reminded Cassie of a bleached sock Alice usually had a little color in her cheeks, but it was gone The girl looked like she was in shock "They pushed up " Alice&039;s voice was barely there and devoid of emotion
Cassie&039;s jaw dropped She leaned forward and took the girl&039;s hand "Alice, when is it?"
"Tonight" Before Cassie could ask her more about it, Alice turned and wandered off The lost expression in her eyes was shock Alice had been chosen to be bred for offspring
Cassie and Cole looked at each other For a long moment, neither of them spoke Then, Cassie finally asked, "Who&039;d they pair her with?"
"I don&039;t know," Cole replied "I left before breakfast to come and find you This is the first I&039;ve heard of it" Cole didn&039;t like this Soh to force up a pre