Once Read Online Free PDF Page A

it’s fine.”
    Maeve crossed her arms over her chest. She was the most muscular of the women, with a chiseled stomach and legs thick from running. “Be careful of the current! And sharks! One was spotted yesterday in the bay.” I cringed at the mention of sharks, but it seemed unlikely, more like a desperate attempt to keep us tethered to the dock, in her sights. She stood there, feet planted in the water, until we were nearly a hundred yards out.
    â€œCan we talk now?” Arden asked, when I set the oars back down. Heddy settled into the bottom of the boat, her paws outstretched, and Arden planted her feet on either side of the dog’s shoulders.
    Maeve had pulled binoculars from the cart and was peering through them, following the boat as it drifted with the current. I smiled, let my hair out of its bun, and waved. “She’s still watching us,” I said. “Stop scowling, Arden, will you?”
    Arden threw her head back and laughed, a deep throaty laugh I’d never heard before. “Don’t you see the irony in all of this?” she asked, smiling now, her expression strange, creepy even, because it didn’t match her words. “We’ve traveled all this way to get here, to escape Headmistress Burns, all her lies. This feels oddly familiar.”
    I knew what she meant. I hadn’t gone back to sleep the night before. Instead, I’d lain awake imagining what would happen if Maeve found out I knew her plans for me. She believed Califia was my final destination, that I would never leave—that I couldn’t. If she thought I had any desire to run away, she might send word to the City of Sand to let them know she had me.
    â€œWhen Caleb and I came here we thought it was the only place I’d be safe.” I looked down at my hands, working at the calluses on my palm, thick from time spent reinforcing the low stone wall behind Maeve’s house. “It seemed like my only choice then, but now …”
    Over Arden’s shoulder, I could still see Maeve on shore. She had dropped the binoculars and started back up the path, turning to check on us every few steps. I was trapped. Out on the bay, closed in on three sides by high rock walls, a hundred eyes were always watching me, wherever I went. Across the bay, San Francisco was just a tiny, overgrown mound of moss. “We have to get out of here.”
    Arden stroked Heddy’s head, gazing beyond me. “We just need time. We’ll figure something out—we always do.” But for a long while neither of us spoke. The only sounds were the waves lapping at the sides of the boat and the gulls calling high above, their wings beating against the sky.
    AN HOUR PASSED. THE BOAT DRIFTED WITH THE CURRENT. I was relieved when the conversation turned to lighter topics. “I hadn’t named her yet,” Arden said. She stroked the dog’s head as she spoke. “I just didn’t think we’d be sticking together very long, and I didn’t want to get attached. But then she sat down in front of the fire and I stared at her. And it hit me. I knew just what I should call her.” Arden pressed her palms against her face and pulled down, making her cheeks look like thick jowls. “Heddy—after Headmistress Burns.”
    I laughed, my first real laugh in weeks, remembering Headmistress’s sagging face. “That’s a little unfair to Heddy, don’t you think?”
    â€œShe understands my sense of humor.” Arden smiled. Her eyes seemed softer, her pale cheeks pink from the sun. “I used to hate dogs. But I wouldn’t have survived without her. She saved me.” Her voice went up a few octaves, as if she were talking to a child. “I love you, Heddy. I do.” She held the dog’s face in her hands and rubbed it, planting kisses on the soft fur of her forehead.
    I’d never heard Arden speak that way. The entire time we were at School she’d