Sisters' Fate by Jessica Spotswood Read Free Book Online Page A

did.”
    Oh. I set my jaw. “I don’t wish to discuss that.”
    Elena’s brown fingers, lined with silver rings, twist in her skirts. “I’m worried about her. Why would she do something so cruel?”
    I laugh without any real mirth. “Isn’t it obvious? She was jealous because I had Finn, and she lost you. She can’t forgive me for it. Likely she thinks we’re even now.”
    “What happened between Maura and me—” Elena pauses, struggling with the words. “That was my mistake. Not yours. I should have been honest about my feelings, no matter what it cost me.”
    I slump into a desk. What would my life be like if things had gone that way? I cast my mind back to that dreadful scene in Elena’s bedroom at our house. Only two months ago, though it feels a lifetime now. I was so certain that Elena was using Maura.
    “Letting Maura think you care for her won’t win you any favors if I’m ever in a position of power.”
    Elena looks at me for a long moment.
    Finally, she turns to Maura. Puts a hand on her ruffled cream sleeve. “Maura,” she says, “I think you’ve misunderstood my feelings.”
    Maura’s blue eyes fill with tears. “Don’t say that,” she begs, taking Elena’s other hand. “Don’t listen to Cate. Please. I—I love you!”
    “I’m flattered by your regard,” Elena says, pulling away, “but I don’t return it.”
    Maura reaches out a hand, then lets it fall. The same hand that cradled Elena’s face so gently. “But you kissed me!”
    Elena shakes her head. “You took me by surprise. It was a mistake.”
    Maura looks past Elena to me. “You were right,” she snaps, running from the room. “Are you happy now?”
    I wish I could reach back in time and tell myself to choose differently, because I am the farthest thing from happy I can imagine.
    “Well, you weren’t honest with Maura,” I tell Elena. “And I’m the one being punished for it.”
    “There has to be more to it than that.” She hops onto the desk in front of me, her boots on the chair, elbows propped on her black-clad knees.
    “Does there?” I ask. “I thought it was just the way sisters are, always fighting, always jealous. I’ve been jealous of her, too. Of how clever she is. How pretty. How vivacious. People have always been drawn to her, they—well, you’d know that better than anyone, I suppose.”
    “I would,” Elena agrees. “She may be impulsive, but she’s not unkind. Not really. This is Inez’s influence. We’ve got to—”
    “No.” I trace a finger across the scarred wooden desktop. “If you want her saved from Inez’s clutches, you’ll have to do it yourself. Maura’s not innocent in this. She knew what she was doing. She warned me, in her own way, that we couldn’t work with the Brothers anymore. She even told Finn to leave, that he wasn’t welcome here with Cora gone.”
    “But he wouldn’t leave you.” There’s something envious in Elena’s eyes.
    I sigh. “And Tess is the oracle anyway, so it was all for nothing. Maura will never lead the Sisterhood.”
    “You’re glad of that, aren’t you?”
    I leap up at the sound of Maura’s voice. My muscles go tight; my jaw clenches. I go to the front of the room, facing the chalkboard, with my back turned to her.
    “You kept it from me. How long did you know?” Maura asks.
    It takes me a moment to realize she means Tess.
    She stalks closer, her boots tap-tap-tapping across the floor like Inez’s. I can smell her sweet citrusy scent, from the lemon verbena she dabs at her wrists and throat.
    I hear Elena jump down from the desk. “Maura, not now.”
    “What friends the two of you have become, having these cozy little chats,” Maura says. “Who would have thought?”
    Jealous again. I curl my fingers into fists. She’s so
petty.
    “Cate, I seem to have a cut on my hand. Since you’re the one who put it there, I think you ought to heal me.”
    I turn. Take the five steps across the classroom and grab my sister’s bare