Page 16 of A Grave Not Made For Mourning
Ms. Ferner frowns, but she can’t speak. Not yet.
Sometimes I wonder if I want to fail—if I’m scared to touch her. If I know, deep down, that I will fail that, too.
Kill her, too.
“You feel normal,” I sigh. “I release you from my command.”
It happens instantaneously; Ms. Ferner’s green eyes return to normal. Her frustration trickles down my throat like poison—impossible to stop. I reach for them, but it’s her words I’m trying to free.
The leather of my gloves is harsh against my skin. The poison only grows harsher. There’s no way to rid myself of her emotion.
“You failed,” she spits.
“I know.”
“There’s no reason you should still be unable to contain it, Wendy.” My name on her lips shocks me; she hardly uses it. “You’re more powerful than the rest.”
“Isn’t that the problem?”
“Only if you think it’s one.”
Ms. Ferner is always mean on the outside. It’s a facade, an over-compensation. She knows she can’t hide how she truly feels, how she truly cares.
Not from me.
No one can.
She wants me better. Her annoyance has become personal.
A knock at the door sounds through the room, and Ms. Ferner fumbles out of the desk just before the door creaks open.
Emotional manipulation has long been banned at Visnatus, which is why I need Ms. Ferner more than she needs me. I don’t have anyone else who could help.
One day, somehow, I would like to be able to touch someone.
This is my single hope.
My heart races with the student’s fear as he stands in the doorway. Something’s wrong—something urgent.
“You’re needed in the combat room,” he says.
Someone’shurt. If Ms. Ferner is needed, then many people are injured, and soon, I’ll be the one healing them.
It scares me.
“Wendy?” Ms. Ferner says, and I look back at her. “Return when you’re able to heal a self-inflicted wound.” She smiles sweetly before leaving.
Eunoia make the best liars.
Chapter 3
I Love Backwards
T
here’s a knock at my door. One I can’t ignore. Frantic worry on the other end presses into my silence like a plea.
“Wendy!” someone shouts. I think it’s Lucian.
