“I understand,” I said, because I did, no matter how much I didn’t like it. And because those were the words that would get me out of this room.
“You may go.”
Permission, after all that.
How benevolent.
I stood, tucked the black case against my side, and walked to the door before my hands could start shaking where he could see them.
Linden opened it from the corridor before I touched it.
When I stepped outside, Caswell stood two doors down with a file in his hands.
Aldric waited at the corner.
Caswell kept his eyes on the file.
Aldric looked at the black case in my hand.
Then at my face.
His expression hardened.
Angry, not surprised.
Then it was gone.
“Walk,” he murmured.
So I walked.
Down the corridor with the expensive runner. Down the stairs that smelled of old water. Past two students who averted their eyes as soon as they found mine.
By the time I reached Room 114, my hand hurt from holding the case so tightly.
I went in and shut the door.
The stolen blanket waited at the foot of the bed.
I wrapped it around my shoulders and opened the case.
The wren’s head tilted as if listening for a sound no one else could hear.
For a minute, my throat closed and tears pricked the inside of my eyes.
Then I took a deep breath and pulled the brooch out.
It was lighter than grief should have been.
I set hit in the drawer with Kieran’s apple and closed the drawer before the sight of them together could become another thing I had to make sense of today.
They had given me my mother’s keepsake.
Then they had put a boy’s name beside it and called it choice.
17
My father’s letter was on my desk before supper bell.
