Page 54 of Rite of Unity

“Hey, Dad.”

He set his bottle down, staring at me unsteadily.“What?”

I glanced back down at my tablet.“Never mind.”

His gaze drifted to the window, and I padded lightly to my room.

Mom napped on days like today.Dad had been doing so well.Work, or possibly my trials, must have gotten to him.

I slid my door closed and winced when a crash sounded in the next room.

“Mother damn!”

I stood by the door waiting.When he didn’t call for me, I fell onto my bed and stared at the tablet’s black screen.

Had he always been like this?Or was there something about leaving the center—leaving everything he’d known—that had broken him slowly?

Another crash from the next room, and I pressed my eyes shut.

It wasn't something I could afford to think about right now.It was nearly three-thirty.

I touched the screen again and typed out a message.

I bit my nail, tearing off the corner.

My thumb traced its uneven edge.My heart slowed.

The screen lit up.

Paul: Nothing on my calendar.

Three dots.

Vera?

Dots.

Vera: Nope.

I bit the next nail.“Barren woman!”

I squeezed the finger as crimson formed at the corner of my nail and splashed onto my tablet screen.

Grimacing, I hopped off the bed.Another drop sank into my carpet.

I opened the door to my room, slipped into the bathroom and grabbed a cloth.

I scrubbed the screen, wiping away the blood, then wrapped the cloth around my finger.It was soaked through in a moment.I wrapped another layer and squeezed, rolling over onto my back and staring at the familiar crack in my ceiling.

***

I stared around the cold metal room and laced my hands in my lap.None of the other matches were here.Just the man who’d arrived at our door half an hour ago with a chaperone and advised me he would be escorting me to mytest.

“Maryn Veil, daughter of Joel Veil?”

I stood.“Yes?”

“Come with me.”