Chapter 17 (ii)

That was it then.

I wanted to be angry, to rage the way at least three of them expected I would, but I couldn’t. A soothing balm of numbness seeped into my bones, spreading out across my body so that all but the most extreme of feelings appeared as little more than a prickle along my skin. I supposed I should’ve felt betrayed—Jayden had promised me his vote, after all—but it was too difficult a feeling to muster. The fairytale had been too good to be true from its outset. Make a story too fantastical and the audience would have a hard time believing it.

This was more in line with the reality I knew; it made the most sense to me and raised no alarms. There was an odd sort of comfort in the familiar, one that softened the blow to little more than a gentle breeze.

“Why?” I asked. It was better to carry on the pretence, if only in small part. I was meant to care and that required asking questions when given such news regardless of