Clentine:
"What did you say? Miss Rue will be waiting for us?" I asked him. He nodded steadily, almost carefully, as if afraid of what I might say.
"She is the one who asked to go look for you," he replied, still holding his hands under my elbows.
"Ian, Miss Rue shot ."
The mont I said that, he straightened his back against the wall, his eyebrows pulling together and his eyes narrowing at .
"Clentine, what are you talking about?" he asked, looking confused.
That was when I started to explain everything to him, how she had brought here to show the fence in advance.
I told him about the task and how she slipped a fake key into my pocket to mislead .
She told I would be killed if I boarded the train. But once I arrived at the fence, she asked for the watch, and once she got it, she shot .
I also told him how I had to pull the bullet out before it caused so much damage that I would not have survived.
He was completely shocked.
"Why would she do that?" he asked . His hold under my elbows was firm now, showing that even he was surprised she had done sothing like that.
"Because of Riv," I replied.
My answer only seed to confuse him further, because his frown deepened.
"Who again?" he questioned.
"Riv. Rember the first crusader who died in the transition stage, the one I was accused of killing?" I responded.
Ian started to shake his head before he slapped his forehead.
"I an, it was pretty obvious that Riv was dragging you down. We were only looking for ways to bully you. But wait, what does that have to do with her?" he questioned, looking lost.
"Ian, Miss Rue is Riv’s sister," I told him.
That was all I had to say for him to understand why she wanted to kill .
"That is so stupid. And, oh my goodness. Why would she think that?" he remarked. As soon as he said it, he paused, and a strange look crossed his eyes.
"Maybe because she saw the whole fight, and she believed that her sister was innocent," I mumbled, choosing my words carefully because I wanted to see his reaction.
The way he started to nod made feel like he knew more than he had ever told , things even I had not fully discovered.
"I know what you are talking about," he uttered.
I tilted my head.
"What do you know?" I asked him.
He could tell I was upset that he had not told before and that I had to be the one to bring it up. Still, it seed like he knew more.
"What do you know, Clentine?" he asked .
"Miss Rue must have sat in the cinema room, watching the first match. And in her head, she decided to hold on to the idea that her sister would have survived if it were not for to be there," I mumbled.
I could tell it was the other part that caught his attention.
"The cinema hall?" he asked, as if trying to make sure he had heard correctly.
"What do you know?" I asked again.
"I do not know how this will make you feel about , but trust , I did not know about this until now," he murmured, pulling his hands away from and covering his face with them.
"I know about the cinema hall," he said.
He lowered his hands, lifted his head, and looked straight at . "And I know how and why the academy was built."
As he finished, I gulped, trying to steady myself.
"How did you find out? And more importantly, "How did the North turn into this?" I questioned him.
The academy could have been built for many reasons, but why the North was like this was the real question.
"When we had a fight and I saw you with Troy, I returned to my room, and a lurker ca to fetch . My father took ho. I passed out there. When I woke up, my father was preparing dinner for us. That was when he told he was going to change so rules for , but before that, he wanted to know the entire truth.
"He took to the basent, where all the truth is kept. That is where I learned everything. I fought my father to leave the mansion and reach the academy, but that was when I found out you were gone. He chose the right day to tell all this because he knew that, behind my back, he was sending you to the North."
I watched him speak softly, but the emotions in his eyes were real, and I believed him. I believed every word he said. It was not the right ti for us to question each other. If he had co all the way to the North to save , then I could trust him.
"Clentine, the North was not built because of a disease or because so wall broke and monsters ca in, but because the alphas had beco sothing else," he explained.
As soon as he said that, a chill ran up my spine, and then he started to tell everything. All of it.
After giving the biggest shock of my life, he repeated one more thing that made feel terrible for him.
"Zian does not even know why he is this way. He was not supposed to be like this. He was forced into becoming a monster."
As soon as Ian said that, I cupped his face and pulled him closer, hugging his head and letting him cry softly against my chest. All this ti, we had been so wronged. The people we lived with, the alphas we called our fathers, were cruel and brutal. I felt sorry for the North and for the monsters.
While he cried against my chest, my eyes drifted to the far distance. The hollow man appeared through the clouds, and I began to wonder who he was.
What was his story? Why had they turned him into a hollow man?
He walked alone, making that sound. Did he know he had once been a normal person? Was he aware sowhere inside? Was he humming to call for the people he loved?
User Comments
0 comments from readers