Frost by Kate Avery Ellison Read Free Book Online

like an invisible hand pressed over my mouth to keep me silent.
    “You came,” Everiss said, startling me with her sudden nearness at my elbow. She looked as if she’d just come from her family’s shop. A smear of blue dye stained her wrist.
    “I said I was going to, didn’t I?” I meant it to be sassy, but my nerves were fried and my tone came out too sharp. I tensed, waiting for the questions. Waiting for the accusations. They would know...they would suspect...
    But Everiss just laughed and hooked her arm into mine, dragging me forward, and my moment of weakness about telling Ann vanished. The group clustered around me, and Cole tipped his head and smiled slyly. I tried to smile back because Ann was giving me her “be sociable” frown, but worry made my lips feel heavy as lead. I grimaced instead.
    The others chatted about socials and engagements and making quota. I stood silent, still immobilized by the gnawing rat of worry in my belly.
    The bell rang, calling us in. People began to stream from the doors of shops and houses, sweeping us along with them inside the sanctuary. I followed Ann, Everiss, and Cole to one of the hard wooden benches and sat.
    A man stepped to the front of the room—Ann’s father. He was tall and thin, with a perpetually gaunt face and wide brown eyes topped with bushy eyebrows. He and Ann had the same nose and mouth, but otherwise she looked like her mother. I saw her smile a little as he waved his hands for everyone’s attention.
    I settled down as he began by reading the marks. Assemblies were long and boring, and they wasted time—time I could be using to fill my quota or do the necessary chores around the farm, like cooking, caring for the animals, washing laundry, and cleaning the house.
    While the names were read aloud, my mind returned to the barn and the Farther we had hidden inside.
    Even with his wounds cleaned and bandaged, there was the risk of infection. I chewed my lip as I contemplated what we would do if he died. Or if he lived.
    “Lia,” Ann hissed. “Are you listening?”
    I sighed and sat up a little straighter. I loved Ann, but lately she was vexing me almost as much as Ivy.
    The Mayor finished reading the names and and moved on to the community rules, a weekly tradition that grew duller every time I heard it. His voice droned, and my thoughts returned again to the problem currently sleeping in my barn. The Farther. Sweat broke out across my back, and when Ann leaned over and smiled at me, I couldn’t smile back.
    I was being stupid. No, I was being worse than stupid, I was being reckless. When my parents died, the responsibility for my safety and my siblings’ safety had fallen on my shoulders. Even though I was young, the Elders believed I was capable of handling my family’s quota and duties, and so they’d allowed us to continue living in the farmhouse instead of splitting us up to go to other families. They’d almost sent Ivy to live with the Washers, who lived above the Mayor’s house and spent their days up to their elbows in scalding, lye-filled water. A shudder rippled through me at the thought of my sister trapped in that place. She was the most exasperating creature I’d ever known, but I didn’t wish her to be in torment. And spending her days sweating and straining at back-breaking labor while her hands turned puffy and red, never able to feel the sun on her face as she worked, or rescue her stupid animals? It would be a particularly vicious punishment for her.
    But now, with the rescued Farther in the barn... If they thought I was incapable of following the rules and meeting the family quota, they would reassign me and take Ivy and Jonn away. Even though he was a man by our standards, Jonn was barely treated better than a child because of his withered leg and poor health. I didn’t know what would happen to him.
    “All members of the community must fulfill all assigned quotas on time, attend the weekly Assemblies...” The Mayor was still