Fractured Soul by Rachel McClellan Read Free Book Online Page B

was. Sophie had crammed as many classes as she could into my schedule. Most of them were with younger girls except for PE, Advanced Light Techniques, and Auras and Their Guardians.
    I was looking forward to PE, but when I got there, the teacher, Ms. Haddy, handed me a manual and told me to read. I stared at it in total shock. A manual on physical education?
    While Ms. Haddy and the rest of the girls began aerobics, I sat down and skimmed its pages. Basically all it talked about was how not to be better than others and how being competitive was wrong. We were all equal, the book said. We should support each other and always work together. Right .
    I opened the cover and searched the publication information for a date. 1941. I couldn’t help but wonder what Auras were like before then.
    The day finally ended. I was in my room reading a history book, or really, trying to distract myself from remembering the nightmare, when I heard a knock on my door. “Come in,” I said.
    The same Lizen girl who served me at meal times entered my room. Her brown hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, and her aqua-colored eyes matched the shimmer of a thin strip of scales that ran from the top of her right temple all the way to her chin. It was actually pretty cool looking.
    The girl wrung her hands together, and she looked everywhere in the room except for at me. “I’ve come to see if you need any fresh towels,” she said. She was almost my height and, if I had to guess, a little younger than me.
    “Um, no, I don’t think so,” I said looking toward the bathroom.
    She bowed her head and then turned to go.
    “Wait!” I called after her.
    She turned around. “Yes?”
    “What’s your name?”
    She hesitated. “My name?”
    “Yeah. I’m Llona and, as you probably already know, I’m new here.”
    “Yes. I know. My name is Tessa.”
    “Do you like it here?”
    “It is satisfactory.”
    “Do you ever go out?”
    “Out?” She finally looked at me. “Out where?”
    The hopelessness in her eyes created a pit in my stomach. “Out. You know, to the library, movies, mall?”
    She shook her head. “Our appearance would not be accepted.”
    I sat up straighter on my bed. “Of course it would. Believe me, I’ve seen stranger.”
    “You have?”
    I nodded. “I met a guy once whose entire face had been tattooed blue.”
    A saw a spark in her eye, but as soon as it appeared it was gone. “I must return to my duties,” she said.
    “Okay. Thanks for stopping by.”
    She turned to leave, but I stopped her again. “Wait, Tessa. One last question.”
    “Yes?” She kept her hand on the door.
    “Does it smell like blood in here?”
    Her face turned a pale shade of white, and I thought she was going to pass out. Before I could get to her, she was already out my door and rushing down the hall.

SIX
    The next couple of weeks passed quickly. When Christian had said I was behind, he wasn’t kidding. I didn’t know a thing about Auras. Most of my class time was spent trying to look up terms I’d never heard before like resplendent and ebullient , or other times I was scrambling to look up certain events in our history just so I could follow a conversation. There was so much to absorb that by the weekend, I was numb.
    It was probably good that I was busy. Whenever I was around others, my temperament was short, and I often snapped at people. It took all the strength I had not to get into fights with the other girls, even though they hadn’t really done anything to me. This gave fuel to the fire that I was a freak. Sometimes I found it easier to just stay in my room, where I wouldn’t have to worry about the anger that seemed to come out of nowhere.
    Christian had tried to get together with me several times, secretly of course, but I always found an excuse to stay away from him. This hurt a lot, but every time I saw him, even in passing, I was reminded of his severed head, a nightmare I continued to have. If there were even a chance of