A Girl in Black and White (Alyria 2)

He raised a brow. “Why’s that?”

I turned my head, glancing at Tasha who was on his tiptoes, an inch from reaching some man’s coin purse with a determined shine in his eyes.

Henry frowned. “Tash is his own person. He don’t work for me.”

“Right. What would he do with all that coin? Buy bananas?” I asked dryly just as Tasha reached our side and dropped a coin purse in Henry’s hand. The monkey shot me a dirty glare like I’d just offended him with my stereotypical jest.

My mother picked at her nails as Henry looked her over with a frown. “She looks like you,” he told me.

“I’m her mother,” Reina said dryly.

“Well, good job you did, letting her almost hang, didn’t ya?”

My mother shot her head up, looking Henry over, before turning her gaze to me. “Why are we conversing with peasant boys?”

Henry’s gaze narrowed dangerously.

“That’s an aspiring Titan you’re looking at, Mother.”

She snorted.

“I’m just not sure why he wants to be one,” I added.

“Titans have a purpose,” he boasted. “And they always get all the women.”

Amusement and disbelief rushed through me at this little man-boy.

“Men,” my mother muttered. “They start out young, don’t they?”

“Oh, no. I gotta go. Momma only sent me out for some milk, but I got sidetracked.”

“Milk only comes in in the morning, Henry.”

“I know,” he said. “I said I got sidetracked, didn’t I?”

It was seven o’clock in the evening. A laugh escaped me. “Yes, I’d definitely rush now before she gets worried.”

My mother sighed when he left. “I’m so glad I didn’t have a boy.”

I let out a breath of disbelief. “You didn’t raise me to begin with, Mother.”

She only frowned, before turning to talk to a woman she must have known in the gathering. Probably some other woman Clinton was having an affair with.

The magistrate finished his speech, and I watched the first man step forward, grasp the edges of the well and look inside. A few seconds passed, and then he took a step back, staring into the crowd, before walking away. Well, I guessed I expected something different. He looked stunned but fine—

He got all the way down the street before the screaming started.

My stomach tightened, and I noticed some people trickle out of the line. But some were still determined. One by one, they went and looked in, some of them falling to their knees afterward, holding their heads. Some making it down the street. But not one seemed to hold onto their sanity.

I was quickly losing my bravery. It was seeping out with each person who stepped forward. The line was dying down, and a thin sheen of sweat covered me.

I’d screwed up so much in my life. Was I going to give up on this? Was I going to be a product of my name?

My heart beat so heavily I could hear it, but before I could second-guess myself, I stepped forward. I swallowed down my fear, walking closer and closer. My mother was saying something, but all I could hear was the slight breeze and a ring in my ears.

I didn’t stop until my hands were grasping the cool stone of the well, and my reflection looked back at me.

The water was so still, not a ripple of movement. My likeness looked back at me; she was dark-eyed, young, foolish. She wasn’t even human, though she knew how to make human mistakes.