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The redhead, the little one, is hissing to Elle that her bodice is now laced too tight, and how can she be expected to stay still during the ceremony--the most important moment of her life, she adds--if she can hardly breathe?

The y girl stands besideas Adair perches on a stepladder and dots her braided hair with tiny fake lilies

There’s a knock on the door, and I don’t knohat I’ A fourth bride, perhaps, or for the Gatherers to coe cylinder and asking the domestics if the brides are ready He doesn’t look at any of us When Elle tells hiround, and with ared carpet that stretches out into the hallway Gabriel disappears into the shadows

Strangetiles The doin tono practice and considering ere all dragged to this place in unconscious heaps after the time spent in that van In a few minutes we’ll be sister wives It’s a term I’ve heard on the news, and I don’t knohat it irls will be my allies or enemies, or if we’ll even coexist after today

The bride in front ofHer wings flutter and bounce

Glitter swirls around her If I didn’t know better, I could swear she’s excited about all this

The carpet leads to an open door to the outside This is what Deirdre called the rose garden, which is abundantly clear by the rosebushes that h walls around us They are an extension of the hallway, really, and despite the open sky overhead, I feel no less trapped than I did inside

The dusk sky is full of stars, and absently I think that back ho outside at this hour The door would be bolted, the noise trap laid out in the kitchen Rowan and I would be having a quiet dinner and washing it doith tea, and then atch the nightly news to see about available jobs and to update ourselves on the state of our world, hoping dise Since the old lab exploded four years back, I’ve been hoping a new lab will replace it, so that Pro-Science research jobs will be created, and so that someone can discover an antidote; but orphans have made a hoiving up, accepting their fate And the news is nothing but job listings and televised events put on by the wealthier class--House Governors and their sad brides It’s supposed to encourage us, I suppose Give the illusion that the world isn’t ending

I don’t have a chance to feel the onco at the end of the rosebush hallway and made to stand in a se is sudden and gaping, and a relief The garden at once beco with fireflies and little flat candles that seehts There are fountains trickling into tiny ponds, and I can see now that thea up the notes radiate out, sounding like a full band of strings and brass I know theMarch," the theazebo at the center of the clearing with the two others, where the red carpet becoe circle There is a man beside us in white robes, and the domestics take their places opposite us, their hands clasped in front of theles as a firefly spirals before her nose and disappears The oldest bride stares into space with eyes as gray as the evening sky I just do what I can to not stand out, to blend in, which I suspect is i to s; I’ve never attended one, and my parents, like most couples at that ti off so young, hardly anybody gets married anymore But I suppose this is how it used to be, roo Linden, the House Governor, eneration azebo and Linden takes the three steps that lead hi us The little redheaded one winks at hiht shter He intends for her to carry his children

I feel nauseous It would be defiant enough just to vomit on his polished black shoes But I haven’t eaten any of the food Gabriel has broughtwon’t win me any favoritism My best chance at escape will be to earn Linden’s trust The sooner I can pull that off, the better

The ins to speak, and the athered here today to join these four souls in this sacred union, which will bear the fruit for generations to come"

As the ht, or theas before, when he selected us from the lineup He’s a tall man with small bones that reen, and his glossy black curls hang like thick vines around his face He is not shtin the hallway For a moment I wonder if he is even the saliold in his teeth, way in the back molars

The domestics have stepped forward The e will secure future generations, and now Linden is addressing us each by name "Cecily Ashby," he says to the little bride Elle opens her clasped hands, revealing a gold ring

Linden takes this ring and places it on the small bride’s hand "My wife," Linden says She blushes and bea, Deirdre has opened her hands and Linden has taken the ring froer "Rhine Ashby," he says

"My wife"