The Chateau (Chateau 1)

The days passed even slower than before.

Because now I was actually anxious for the future.

I ignored the next Red Snow as best I could, but it traumatized me even more than usual, because I remembered exactly how it felt to have that rope around my neck. Listening to her screams made me stop breathing because it felt as if the noose were around my own throat, choking me.

Hopefully that was the last Red Snow I’d have to listen to.

I just needed that storm to come.

Another drop came, and we grabbed everything that fell from the sky and put it on the wagon.

There was no bell.

We returned to camp, unloaded everything, and then had a full day of work.

The sky was clear, so a storm didn’t seem to be in the forecast.

At the end of the workday, we weren’t dismissed as usual.

Instead, the executioner came out.

The torches weren’t lit, and it’d only been days since the last Red Snow.

So, something different was happening.

He looked at all of us, as if searching for something.

I turned to Bethany, who was standing beside me. “Do you know what’s happening?”

She shook her head.

The executioner started to speak. “One of you has stolen from us.”

Instantly, I was sick, so fucking sick that I wanted to vomit right onto my boots. Blood pounded in my ears, and all the excitement I felt at my success was quickly taken away. My eyes darted to Melanie.

Her eyes were already on me.

The executioner scanned all of us, searching for a reaction.

I forced myself to keep a blank face, to hide just how fucking terrified I was.

“If anyone knows anything about this, come forward. You’ll be rewarded.”

Melanie was the only one who knew, so I was safe.

“Every cabin will be searched.”

Shit.

“When we find what belongs to us, you’ll hang.” The executioner turned away, ending the announcement.

Fuck, what was I going to do? When I got back to the cabin, I would have to leave again, carry everything into the woods. But it was still light out, the sun setting, so someone would see me. Guards would be everywhere.

They must have noticed the bow and arrows were missing that morning before we collected the drop. They probably tried to find the missing set all afternoon, and when they couldn’t, they realized someone had taken it, along with other items.

Why hadn’t that storm come?

I hadn’t anticipated this because the drops were unpredictable. Sometimes they came often, and sometimes they didn’t come at all.

Fuck, I was so screwed.

The women rose from the tables and headed back to their cabins, immediately whispering to one another about the revelation. Before I turned away, I looked at Melanie again.

She looked at me—like she knew.

Magnus grabbed me by the arm and yanked me away. He was harsh, when he normally didn’t touch me at all. “Come on.” He marched me back along the route we took in the morning, keeping me ahead of him so he could walk behind me.

The blood was pounding so loudly in my ears that I couldn’t hear my own boots against the snow. I felt neither cold nor warm, just alarmed, just full of anxiety for the mess I’d caused myself.

I was so lost in my head that the journey to my cabin took only a few seconds. I didn’t even realize we were there until Magnus moved in front of me and entered the cabin.

I followed behind him.

He shut the door behind me and rounded on me so fast. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” He yanked his hood down, showing his red face, the vein pulsing in the center of his forehead. “How stupid are you? You really thought they wouldn’t notice? Do you even know how to use a bow and arrow?”

I stepped back, breathing hard because I was scared of what would happen when they came to my cabin.

“I told you that you can’t escape, but you pull this stunt?”

“You told me you’d still run for it.”

“So I can die on my own terms. Not because there’s any chance that I could make it a mile before they hunted me down.” His hands moved to both sides of his head, and he dug his fingers into his hair, gripped his skull like he was furious. “You said you were sick of cleaning up your sister’s messes? Well, I’m fucking sick of cleaning up yours.” He took a knee on my floor and pulled out tools from his pockets.

“What…what are you doing?”

“Get the shit you stole.” He pulled out a crowbar and stuck it between the boards, yanking it back so the wood would come free. “Come on. Quickly. We don’t have time.”

I grabbed the bow and arrow from the tub and then gathered everything else. “What if you just put it in the woods—”

“I can’t walk out of here with all this shit. Dead fucking giveaway.” He got on his stomach and started to tuck everything underneath the cabin, digging up the soil with his bare hands and placing everything underneath it until he smoothed it over with the dirt, hiding it from view. Then he returned the plank to the floor, putting a dab of glue between the boards so it wouldn’t be obvious that one was loose.