Unraveled by Gennifer Albin Read Free Book Online

you’re back in his good graces. Who did you
     betray for that privilege?” Hanna is clearly unimpressed with me.
    “I understand being angry. I’m angry, too,” I whisper to her.
    “Oh, please,” she says with an exaggerated roll of the eyes. “What could you possibly
     have endured?”
    “Death, destruction, the loss of the people I love most,” I say, and I refuse to blink.
     Hanna thinks she has me pegged, but she has no idea how I wound up here.
    Or how far I’m willing to go.
    “So you gave in to save a boy,” she says in a mocking voice.
    I don’t tell her about my sister or the mother they’ve turned into a monster or the
     friend who escaped only by losing her own blood in a bathtub. Hanna needs to be angry.
     It fuels her so that she won’t feel the fear in her belly. I know that fear. It never
     goes away. You can only ignore it or hide it under the fury.
    But I have different reasons to play along right now. Ones she can’t understand. Hanna
     only sees me on the other side of the bars and that makes me her enemy.
    Still, a girl might go crazy locked away in a tower day after day. Hanna and her conspirators’
     perception of Arras has warped. It’s easy to believe you understand the function of
     your world when it’s at your fingertips every morning, afternoon, and evening. When
     the loom presents a piece of your world, it’s easy to believe you see the whole picture.
     I held thunder in my palms and wove rivers into being. But I didn’t understand what
     I was facing until I stood under the Interface and contemplated the reality of both worlds. Then I saw Arras for what it was: a parasite sucking away at the Earth.
    “There’s more at stake here than you or me,” I say to her quietly. “It’s the awful
     truth. You think you can run from it, but there’s nowhere to go.”
    “I don’t want to run from it,” Hanna says, her eyes fierce. “I want to change it.”
    “You can’t do that from a prison cell,” I remind her.
    “Adelice wised up,” Cormac says, and I realize he’s been privy to our entire conversation.
     “She and I are working to make life in Arras stable again.”
    “I can’t wait to see how you’re going to do that,” Hanna says.
    “It’s too bad you won’t be around to witness it,” Cormac replies.
    “What does that mean?” I demand, stepping in. I don’t care what any of them think
     of me anymore. Not when things are spiraling out of control.
    “You know how I treat traitors, Adelice. You’ve seen it yourself.”
    “But she hasn’t experienced it herself,” Hanna points out. “You’ve spared her. If
     we were all young and pretty, maybe you’d make an exception for us as well.”
    “You are young and pretty, Hanna, but I can’t forgive everyone,” he says. “Adelice
     will help me to heal the wounds your generation has inflicted on Arras by becoming
     my wife. That was the price she was willing to pay for peace.”
    “Better her than me,” Hanna says, and then she unceremoniously spits at him. It lands
     at his feet.
    Cormac takes a step back and regards the floor with disinterest. “If you want to know
     why I chose her despite her clear lack of respect for Guild authority, then I’ll tell
     you. Adelice uses her intelligence to fight, which proves to me she is capable of
     reason. I’m less and less sure that’s something most of you are capable of.”
    “When you say most of us , you mean women, right?” I say.
    “Don’t bother, hon,” Hanna says. “You stopped being one of us when you partnered with
     him.”
    Her accusation doesn’t sting like it once might have. Hanna has chosen her path and
     I’ve chosen mine. I have the benefit of experiences that she doesn’t. Hanna is young
     and angry, but there’s desperation in her actions and her words. It colors her ability
     to think rationally. The only way I can salvage this situation is to take the opposite
     approach. Reacting got me nowhere when it came to saving the