“Oh yes,” Ellis said stiffly, overacting his nonchalance so badly that Timothy rolled his eyes. “Byron started his reading lessons with Teacher Wendell yesterday.”
“How wonderful!” my mother exclaimed, managing a slightly more normal air than my brother. “How fortunate he is. What a wonder it would be to be able to read!”
I winced as her words hit home. Staying near home for the last few days had meant I hadn’t even had the opportunity to peek at words. To do that, I needed to go somewhere where books and writing were allowed. Somewhere like my school, where our sealed teacher kept his writing under careful lock and key, bringing it out only to read aloud to the class—and during those summers when one of his pupils had been sealed and needed to learn to read and write.
I didn’t take my mother’s bait, however, merely munching on in silence. She stared at me, and I counted down in my head. She had been unnaturally forbearing for days. There was no way she was going to be able to hold it in.
I only made it to four, so she was obviously more worried than I’d realized.
“Don’t you want to learn to read, Aria!?” she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “I thought it was your life dream. You used to go on about it often enough.”
“Of course I want to read.” I scooped up another spoonful. “But I’ve got all summer. There’s no rush.”
“No rush!?” Timothy shook his head. “If I’m ever sealed, I’ll be looking for books immediately. Aren’t you curious?”
“Of course I’m curious.” Heat crept into my voice, despite my resolution not to be baited. “But I’m also tired. There’s nothing wrong with taking a small break after all my hard work.”
The irritation in my voice wasn’t really for Timothy. He was right. And I’d always thought I’d immediately seek out words as well. Even in that moment, sitting at my family dining table, I felt a pull toward them.
But it wasn’t the words I was avoiding. It wasn’t even the work I would have to put in to understand them. I was avoiding the person who held the key to unlocking the longed-for knowledge.
My mother’s face softened. “Of course you deserve a break, Aria dear. You’ve worked incredibly hard. I’m just concerned…”
She cast an anxious look toward my father, and he cleared his throat. “I’ve never liked the way that teacher of yours bows and scrapes to the Robarts,” he said in his slow, deep voice. “Even before the incident two years ago.”
Rumbles of anger sounded around the table from my brothers, dying down only at a glare from our mother. I kept my focus on my father, though. He was usually slow to pass judgment on others or to express an opinion on anything outside his field of expertise. I had known he was upset for me, but I’d never heard him criticize Teacher Wendell outright.
“It’s for exactly that reason that your mother and I are concerned,” he said. “If you miss your chance to join the Robart boy in learning to read, there’s every chance your teacher will refuse to teach you at all.”
I frowned. That possibility hadn’t occurred to me.
“Could he do that?” Anson sounded skeptical. “I thought teachers were required to run a summer reading class if anyone from their class was sealed during the last year.”
“Indeed,” my father rumbled. “And Teacher Wendell is running such a class. But if Aria misses the crucial early teaching, he may well claim that it’s too late for her to join and that he isn’t obligated to teach a second class.”
I put down my spoon, my stomach suddenly churning too much for me to eat another bite. Why hadn’t I thought of that? It sounded exactly like something that snake would do.
I steeled myself. “I’ll go tomorrow,” I managed to say, although it did little to settle the roiling in my stomach.
My mother, however, was instantly transformed. Wreathed in smiles, she bustled off to bring out an elaborate dessert that I couldn’t bring myself to touch.
My family already didn’t like my teacher, but they didn’t know all of it. They didn’t know the danger he had put me in with his laziness, or the way he had so easily turned his back on me after exploiting my desperation. It sickened me to think of spending long days in his company again.
But the next morning I forced myself to rise and dress promptly, leaving my house with dragging steps. I exited through the kitchen door, rounding the corner of the house to find a person on our front step, hand raised to knock.
“Zakary!” I rushed forward and grabbed his arm to stop him from knocking. “What are you doing here?”
“Visiting you, of course.” He smiled at me. “And I’m relieved to see I’m at the right house. I was having last minute doubts about my information.”
“How did you find out where I live?” I hissed as I dragged him away from the house, looking furtively from side to side as I did.
If a single person from our neighborhood saw us, they would find an excuse to go nosing to my mother with questions within the hour. And my mother currently knew nothing about the existence of anytall, handsome stranger keeping Aria company.
I dragged him down a side alley, skirting several dubious piles of detritus with a wrinkled nose. But as soon as I was confident we were out of sight, I whirled on him.
“Well?” I demanded. “How did you find me?”
He looked at me with bemusement. “There aren’t a lot of Arias who just got sealed in this neighborhood.”
