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My heart clenches at the sound of her name. It is a statement. Nothing I need to respond to.
The head Council member continues, “Two hundred and ten credits sit in your mother’s account, left to you. It is five credits short of the two hundred and fifteen required for residency. Do you have any kin who can gift you these credits?”
I do not. The Council knows this. They know everything about each citizen within the city walls—what they eat, what time they wake, how many lovers they take. With my father gone, I have no kin. “No, my lady.”
With her lips pursed, she looks to the left and to the right to her fellow Council members. Each gives a nod. “Then we have no choice but to banish you to the Unseen. Without the proper credits, you lose your rights as a Citizen of Avren.” She brings a giant wooden hammer down on a pulpit in front of her. “Our decision is final.”
I hold my chin up in a rigid attempt to keep the tears from flowing. The healer gave me a double dose of the daily vitamin we take to stabilize our brain chemistry and prevent displays of emotion prone to cause unwanted disturbances. Avren raised me soft—a perfect Citizen. I can dance, employ proper utensils, and use flowery speech, but jobs like cleaning, building, and cooking are for the Undesirables.
“Maribel, it is time to go.” Lady Raven’s words cut into my thoughts. I wander through the room, unsure of what to do. While I was here, the workers have cleaned out my home and taken every credit from our safe. The only thing they allowed me to keep was my mother’s ledger.
A hand clutches my arm, dragging me to a side door near the front of the room. It’s the Undesirable with the sandy-blond hair, the one the guard called Grayson, the one I tried to avoid on the bench.
Outside the courtroom, I shake my arm free from his clutch. “Don’t touch me, urchin.” If the sickness clings to my clothes, there is nothing I can do now.
Grayson laughs, his gaze raking over my dress clothes. “They all start out the same—too high and mighty for the rest of us. I remember that feeling well. It won’t last long, my lady.” He gives a mocking bow.
I straighten my shoulders. Before today, an Undesirable like Grayson could have faced the death penalty for treating a Citizen in this manner. “Three weeks, two hours, and fifty-seven minutes, and this would have been different.”
Grayson sits on a bench and removes his cap, flipping it in his hands. “One week, fifteen hours, and thirty-nine minutes.” He rolls up his sleeve and reveals a tattoo of the numbers 11539. “It’s a constant reminder of the life I lost.”
Still hesitant, I position myself on the opposite side of the hard wooden bench. Part of me is repulsed by him. Part of me feels the pull of his pain. “What happened to your parents?”
He clears his throat. “Tanner will be out here soon. We don’t have time to bond over our tragic stories, Mari.”
“My name is Maribel.”
“In Avren, your name is Maribel.” He pulls his cap back on as the door to the chamber opens and Tanner walks out with a guard. “The Unseen is my realm, and your name is Mari.”
Of all the presumptuous, arrogant ideas.
Grayson stands to greet Tanner, holding out his hand. The younger boy stares at it but doesn’t reciprocate. I don’t blame him. More than likely, Tanner’s parents died from the sickness too, and touching the unsavory likes of Grayson Elrod feels like a death sentence to him.
“As a former child of Avren, the Council has tasked me with guiding orphans into their new lives in the Unseen.” Grayson walks down the hall, and we follow, knowing we have nowhere else to go.
“But why would they hire an Undesirable like you?” Tanner says, tears still visible on his cheeks.
Grayson whips around, grabs Tanner’s shirt by the shoulders, and pins him to the wall. “First, never refer to the people of the Unseen as Undesirables. That’s a slanderous term used by Citizens. We call ourselves the Redeemed.” He releases Tanner’s shirt, letting him drop to his feet. “I branded my skin to remind me of my past and how far I’ve come.”
The boy scowls at Grayson. Tanner is too small in stature to act on the anger he feels toward our guide to the Unseen. The helplessness we both feel, untrained in anything of importance, grows like an insurmountable wall. If we don’t join the people who live beneath our feet, we might receive a worse fate: banishment to the wilderness.
I shudder. “But who would choose the life of an Undesirable—I mean, a Redeemed, over the life of a full-fledged Citizen of Avren?” I ignore Grayson’s brusque ways, expecting nothing less from an Undesirable.
“Someone who has tasted both and realizes one comes up lacking.” He removes a key from a chain at his waist and unlocks a metal door. One of the many doors keeping Undesirables without working papers out of Avren. “Have you ever tasted a beer, Mari?”
I draw in my eyebrows and shake my head. “No. It is forbidden to drink alcohol in Avren. Why would you ask such a question?”
Grayson swings the door open and ushers us inside. The passageway smells of must and germs—everything kept far away from the city. I want to back against the wall, but fear of what might crawl along the damp surface keeps me at the center of the stairs.
“Or have you met a boy and shared a passionate kiss?” Grayson lights a match and holds it to a torch affixed to the wall.
My body burns like the torch in his hand. How could he expect me to answer such a question? “Life partners may exchange chaste kisses. I am only seventeen.” But I had experienced this type of kiss—behind a utility wall and out of sight of the cameras. The memory of the touch of his hands still warms my skin.
“And a whole new world is about to blow your mind, Mari Windsong.” He glances at Tanner, sizing up his slight form. “You will both need to undergo strength training.”
“To hold a broom?” I conjure images of Caron sweeping our floor, humming songs. “Or to bake a pie?”
Grayson holds his torch up to another door, using a key to unlock it. “The Redeemed do a lot more than wait hand and foot on the Citizens of Avren. And the Supes will eat you alive.”
