Thorns by Kate Avery Ellison Read Free Book Online

was it tears?
    The trees closed over my head, obscuring the sky, and I was just a scrape of blue in a sea of white as I took the path home. Trampled snow blossoms littered my way, looking like bits of fallen sky embedded in the snow. I brushed my fingers over the blossoms dangling from my neck, my nervous habit, and hurried faster.
    The farm came into view as I crested the final hill, and I stopped to catch my breath. A tendril of smoke curled from the chimney of the white clapboard house that stood alone in the center of the yard, surrounded by a skirt of snow. Footprints perforated a trail from the front door to the barn and back. Ivy must have seen to the animals already.
    I needed a moment before I went into the house. I turned and plunged off the path into the Frost.
    The icy branches enfolded me in an evergreen embrace. Snow swirled in my eyes and dusted my hair as I pushed through the icy vegetation in the direction of the traps. I walked quietly, keeping my ears tuned for any unusual sounds. The wild, white beauty of the forest made my chest ache. My breath burned in my lungs—it always felt colder in the Frost itself.
    The traps were all empty. I swallowed curse words and turned for home. And all the dark, broken thoughts and fears swept over me like a muddy wave. Every single piece of my life had crumbled. My parents were dead. Gabe was gone. Farthers had occupied our village. And now my best friend might be in trouble, too.
    I felt so helpless.
    I stepped on a branch, and the rotted wood snapped like a shot beneath my boot. I paused and scanned the trees around me out of habit, and the feeling of being watched that always hovered at the edge of my awareness in the Frost slipped across my skin. I exhaled. My heart beat faster. And I realized I was looking—hoping—to see a flutter of blue cloak, a head of dark hair.
    But he wasn’t there.
    My whole body went still as an idea came to me, clear as a rush of cold wind.
    I let my lips curve into a grim, determined smile.
     
    ~
     
    Jonn watched me all through dinner, his eyes narrowed. He read my moods better than anyone, and I was sure he’d sensed my sour temper. I swallowed the dry bits of potato and kept my gaze on my plate. Across the table, Ivy toyed with her food and jiggled her foot beneath the table.
    We were a silent bunch.
    “How are things in town?” Jonn asked when I thought I was about to scream from the weight of the unspoken words and my anxieties pressing against me.
    I shot a glance at my sister. “Assembly was, well... Ivy, can you put more water over the fire for the tea?”
    “You can say it in front of me,” she snapped. “I’m not a child anymore. What happened at Assembly?”
    I bit my lip and looked at my twin. He fumbled with his fork a moment before nodding, and I dragged in a deep breath. “They arrested Edmond Dyer. They took away his home and his livelihood and sentenced him to hard labor.”
    “What?” Jonn’s knife clattered against the table. “Why?”
    “The Mayor fed us a ridiculous story about him endangering the village.” Just repeating it made my throat prickle and my skin itch with fury. “Farther soldiers threw him to the ground, kicked him, dragged him away... I’m glad you weren’t there to see it, either of you.”
    They both blinked at me, stunned.
    “And what do you think they really arrested him for?” Jonn demanded.
    “A show of power...retaliation... They’re trying to frighten us all into submission.” Anger surged through me, making my hands shake as I gathered up my utensils and piled them on my empty plate. I thought of what else had happened, Leon and the rest—I had much more to tell Jonn, but not in front of my sister.
    Ivy pressed her fingers over her mouth. “Are they going to take our farm away, too?”
    “What? No. Of course not.” I grabbed my empty plate and stood. My stomach still twisted with hunger, but we’d eaten all I dared spare from our food supply for the day. We would