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He stared atHis features softened, and hope filled ht I should just kill you now"

CHAPTER THREE

I couldn’t bear to see if Yasuo would be true to his word A tide of students appeared, and I turned fro hall When I got there, I didn’t wait to sit down I just grabbed e, black lunch tray dangling empty in my hand

I sed, and a pleasant shiver rolled upthe blood of another, but how quickly we got used to it Who could resist the rush of courage and power that ca the lifeblood of a vaer we grew

I peered into the glass-fronted refrigerator Valimmered in preposterously formal, cut-crystal tumblers, all lined up in neat rows For one crazyan extra

I shook off the feeling As with all good things, just enough was just right But too …or itcould drive a weak mind mad

And me, I had to be extra careful, bonded as I was to Carden Already I got to drink straight fro heart, and that was infinitely lass at dinner

An explosion of sound startledhall I tensed, hearing Yasuo’s voice rise above the rest

I stole a peek overso intensely, I wouldn’t have been surprised if there were a couple of red laser-bea on my forehead I had to look away

It was hopeless Ee, and apparently Yas did, too Only he wanted revenge on th I’d felt frolike a wispy paper-doll cutout ofI needed to sit

Despair and the ghosts of friends past scratched at a door in the back of my o, I’d have been settling in at a table with Eoofing off I’d watched as the two of thean to crush on each other Watched as it’d developed into more My old Proctor, Amanda, would’ve been there, too, with her Cockney accent, calling her fries chips and her chips crisps Tracer Judgeeveryone’s gaze but Amanda’s They’d been a couple, and their failed escape had been the death of theard, and now most of them were dead

I swayed Get to a chair

I made my feet walk to the first e the wall near the door I just needed to eat Not talk to anyone Get in and get out I didn’t want to be there, but I needed my calories--proper nourishment could mean the difference between life and death on this island

I wolfed down bread and soup An awareness of s was even more critical than those calories, and I pretended to keep to er see Yasuo, but still I felt his eyes boring intowith his fellow Trainees

E it hard to s I hadn’t knownone hurt worse than any injury, and I’d had a lot of bad injuries

I tried to focus oninstead I chewed and sed and chewed and sed Chewed, sed, and tried to consider the fact that I did still have people in ht of hi in my chest I tried to picture him, to remember his scent, his eyes The taste of him To recall the touch of his hand and the sound of his voice Though I couldn’t su to every thread of every ether into a lifeline