Page 45 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

Abruptly he let her go and walked toward the door, but he threw another smile her way before he exited. Beyond the porch windows, she saw that the others were waiting for him while straddling their machines. She watched as he threw a leg over and started his bike. As he led them away, she was wondering what she’d just gotten herself into. One thing was certain. She’d promised nothing less than a ride and Carnal gave every appearance of being the sort who collected on promises.

Eager to think about something else, she pulled out some of the books and began arranging them according to which ones she’d read first. Serene had marked them according to level, which made it considerably easier. An hour later she’d lined them up along the bar. Her first impression was that Kellareal had supplied books that were innocuous at best, pablum at worst. What was in front of her on the bar were the basic tools of education minus the passion, tragedy, and triumph of history and literature complete with flights of heroics and shames of failure. Or the creativity of art. Or the challenges to conventional modes of thinking of philosophy or social critique. Conspicuously absent were texts pointing to innovations in science and technology.

Rosie suspected that Kellareal had reasons for his choices, but she was quickly coming to the conclusion that she neither understood nor agreed with them.

She was poring over the materials, when a deep, gruff voice said, “What’s this then?”

It was Scar. Rosie raised her head to acknowledge him, looked up and down the bar, then at the wind-up clock they kept on the middle shelf. Almost the entire bar was covered with books.

She jumped off the stool where she’d been sitting. “Oh, sorry. I’m looking at the school books for Serene.”

“Serene. Good woman.”

Rosie nodded. “Uh, yeah,” and hurried to gather the books and stack them under the bar at the end nearest the porch.

“Why does she want you to look at the books?”

“Because I said that at least some of the books ought to be about hybrid children and not human children. For instance, a hybrid child wouldn’t relate to reading that Johnny was sad because he couldn’t jump the fence like his older brother.”

Scar blinked twice and then laughed out loud. It was the second time that day that Rosie had been startled by a sudden movement or loud sound made by one of the Exiled. She jumped. Visibly. Which made Scar laugh harder. Even so, she didn’t regret the experience. It was the first time she’d heard his laughter, which was deep and loud with an underlying rumble like a thunderstorm.

“You slay me, Rosie,” he said when his amusement began to wane.

“That’s a good thing. Right?”

He shook his head. “You’re done. Go home.”

“Home,” she repeated, looking confused. He’d meant the Extant’s house, but the image that had come to her mind was the Sonoma villa where she’d spent her developmental months with her mother and an imposter posing as her father. She missed home and wondered if it wasn’t time to go back and face real life. Newland wasn’t real life. It was real life on pause.

“Did you get the books?” Serene asked when Rosie came down for dinner.

It was just the three of them for dinner. No one mentioned why Charming wasn’t there and she didn’t ask.

“Yes. Thank you. Carnal and his friends brought them. It was really helpful that you marked them according to level. I got them organized and started looking through them.”

“Well, what do you think?”

“Still forming conclusions.”

Serene looked intrigued. “I think I’m eager to hear those conclusions.”

“There may be some, well, what I would think of as holes in the curriculum.”

Serene’s brows came down. “Holes?”

Rosie wiggled her head. “Things that would typically be included where I’m from, but I won’t know that for sure until I go over everything.”

“Are those things that are important?” Free asked.

“Well, they could be. Yes.” Rosie felt put on the spot and wanted to be careful about how she phrased things. “I don’t know what the human children are studying, but I think it’s important thatyouknow what they know. Where I come from, that’s called a balance of power.”

“Balance of power,” Free repeated.

“Uh huh.”

Free frowned. “You’re thinking about the time before Kellareal freed us. The humans could control us because…” He took a deep breath. “Because they knew how to.”

“You don’t need me to tell you that’s true. You already know it. I don’t know what the human children are learning, but if you’re protecting them while they’re learning about science and technology…” Free looked at Serene, who knew him well enough to recognize the alarm in his eyes even if no one else would see a change in his expression. “I’m not saying that the humans who live in Fars…”

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