Clentine:
I fell asleep peacefully, and that was the surprising part. I knew that when I woke up, the chaos would begin again.
Until then, I wanted at least one night of peace.
When I started to wake up, I realized I had been right. Oriana was the reason my peace and sleep would be ruined once more.
"What is going on with you two? You’re so rude to ," she demanded.
She was speaking to soone, but I hadn’t opened my eyes yet, so I didn’t know who.
"Because you keep fucking getting in our way! Don’t you see? She’s sick and needs care!" It was Haiden, snapping at her, not in the usual tone he used before with her.
The gentle and teasing one.
"I’m hurt too, by the way, and I have a more visible injury," Oriana retorted.
Her sassy tone was hard to listen to. It sounded like she truly believed what she was saying.
"Oriana, you got punched in the face because you were doing sothing completely disrespectful to her. And who told you her sickness isn’t visible? She was burning with fever last night. Instead of being a good friend, sitting beside her and taking care of her, you decided to lie down, snort, and cry because you weren’t getting attention?" Troy hissed at her, surprising .
I hadn’t expected them to hold her accountable. I thought they had beco her little puppets, or maybe they actually believed she was innocent.
Either way, it reminded that the mont I woke up and Oriana did sothing stupid again, they’d probably turn their backs on .
Still, I was grateful they had taken care of last night when I was miserable.
I rember having so many scattered thoughts, probably because of the fever.
It could have been a horrible night if they hadn’t rembered, even for a split second, that I was their mate and decided to care for .
"So how long is she going to stay asleep while you guys take care of her?" Oriana kept pressing them, ignoring their tone and the irritation in their voices.
"Oriana, if you just stay quiet, maybe we can all avoid getting sick," Haiden argued.
He spoke to her the way he used to before he lost his mind over her, which made a little skeptical of him again.
"So you’re doing this because you don’t want to disappoint her too? Hoping you can take us both for a ride?" As soon as she said that, the door swung open and soone barged in.
The others couldn’t respond, but her words made wonder if she was right.
They had shifted quickly when she started giving them attention, especially when she agreed to that ridiculous sharing arrangent.
But my focus turned to the person who had just walked in.
"What’s going on here?" It was Mr. Rick’s voice.
I slowly opened my eyes. I had already heard enough of the conversation to know I didn’t want to be part of it, but with Mr. Rick, I needed to speak for myself if necessary.
"She was extrely sick last night," Haiden stated.
As I opened my eyes, I saw Mr. Rick standing beside my bed, next to Troy, staring at with a displeased look on his face.
"Where are the other two?" he asked, referring to Ian and Yorick. His eyes stayed fixed on .
"I’m not sure about Ian, but Yorick went out to grab her so food," Haiden replied.
Troy glanced at , giving a quick once-over. He even smiled a little, but I turned my eyes away. I noticed the way he frowned at that.
"Where is he possibly getting food from?" Mr. Rick questioned.
Not once did he ask what had happened. That showed how little they cared about their crusaders.
We were seen only as tools for fighting. Nothing more.
"Yorick went out to et Miss Rue," Troy explained.
"Are you okay, Clentine?" Mr. Rick finally asked.
I started to get up, but Haiden imdiately tried to help . I gently pushed his hand away and sat up in bed, giving him a small nod.
"Well, good then, because I rember the other day you had a punishnt pending. I’m not talking about the Northern one. All of you are supposed to collect water in the buckets, fifty each. You’ll have to carry them to the top of the mountain," Mr. Rick stated, his hands clasped behind his back.
"Are you kidding ? What are we supposed to do there with the water?" Haiden questioned, sounding irritated.
I could tell Mr. Rick didn’t appreciate his tone.
"There hasn’t been any rain, and we have so herbs planted up there that need water, a lot of it," Mr. Rick explained.
He was talking about one of those rare herbs they always seed to find.
That was their usual practice, discover sothing magical, plant it high on the mountain, and then demand endless buckets of water for it.
They couldn’t wait for the rain, and they refused to use easier thods. Why would they? They already had free labor.
"Well then, we’ll divide Clentine’s buckets. What do you say?" Haiden turned to Troy, asking him directly. Troy nodded.
"Sure, we can," he agreed.
The confidence in their voices didn’t just surprise , it seed to shock Oriana and Mr. Rick too.
"Why wouldn’t she do it? It’s her punishnt," Mr. Rick snapped, and I noticed Oriana nodding vigorously behind him in support.
To think I would have done the sa for her in the past, it made furious with myself, with how blindly I had trusted her.
"Well, for starters, because she’s sick. And I hope you’re not suggesting that she goes out there and suffers when she needs to rest."
That was when real shock hit , Troy had decided to stand up for against Mr. Rick.
"Well, in that case, we’ll see," Mr. Rick said.
As soon as he spoke, Yorick walked in with Miss Rue leading the way.
"Clentine will not be doing any punishnt today," Miss Rue announced.
For the first ti, I heard real confidence in her voice, and it stunned .
"She will rest, and that is my decision," she stated firmly, making Mr. Rick stare at her in shock.
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