Page 1 of Rite of Unity

Prologue

Icrossedmyarmsovermy chest, tucking my hands under my armpits to hide my trembling fingers.

“Get your hands down by your sides,” Mother demanded.

I uncrossed my arms, goosebumps peppering my bare skin.

“Turn.”

I moved in a slow circle, her gaze burning a line across my shoulders, down my back and thighs.When I faced her again, her lips pressed into a thin line.

“Your father should have worked harder to ensure you had steak on Fridays.”

“I don’t mind fish, Mother.”

Mother’s footsteps circled me slowly, her gaze a blade dragging over every inch of exposed skin.

“Don’t speak to a man who hasn’t spoken to you first.”She stopped behind me.“Don't be seen alone with any man who isn’t your match or your father.”Her heels scraped the floor as she continued her circuit.“And don’t—ever—seem desperate to be chosen.Nothing repels a man faster.”

I nodded, but her voice had already begun to blur at the edges.

When I was matched, I would finally get to hold a man’s hand.To know him.To kiss him… Once I made it to Trial Five.I would walk into a room on his arm and belong there.Not as my father's daughter.As someone's choice.

Mother’s voice sharpened into focus once more.“You're lucky your education continued until eighteen.Middle girls don’t get that.”

I would have rolled my eyes if my cheek wasn’t still sore.

“That’s exactly what you’ll be if you don’t give your husband a son.”

Those words sobered me.

She saw it.Mother missed nothing.“I’ve spent two years teaching you everything I could about how to be a wife.Now you must be chosen.”

I looked at her.

She held my gaze for a moment, then flicked a finger.Brida darted forward, wrapping a soft pink robe over my shoulders.

“When you get to step two, don’t flinch or hide yourself.They assume you’re covering radiation burns when you’re modest.”

I dipped my chin, knotting the tie tightly around my waist.

“When you’re submerged, don’t come up until the pressure eases.You’ll feel like you’re suffocating, starved for air.”Her eyebrow rose as she watched me step down from the pedestal in my dressing room.“The waste of so much water on one girl is sacrifice enough.Don’t let them think you’re ungrateful.”

I had heard these words so many times nothing about them should have fazed me anymore.But my hands had gone still on the tie.

“But—”

“Better you drown than come up early.”

I nodded.

“Brida, get her things.”

My lady’s aide raced to my bed, scooping up every stitch of clothing I owned.Hair ribbons in yellow and pink, pastel shaded socks, even my undergarments.

She wobbled toward me, dragging gowns as she went.

I held out my arms, sinking under the weight.“Do we really have to bring them all?”