The Fear Trials Read Online Free PDF

enough.”
    â€œShe doesn’t understand the danger,” my mother says. For a second, I think I see tears start to form in her eyes. The boat rocks. She stumbles into Koi, who helps her back onto her feet. “We need to motivate her.” She turns to Peri and smiles. “Stand beneath the X, darling.”
    I choke on a laugh. “ What?”
    â€œYou’ll never win if you can’t first face your fears,” says my mother. She points at Peri, who scampers across the deck and stands obediently under the X. The center of the target is right above her head. “Hit the target, Meadow. Hit it right, and if you don’t, you’ll understand what it means to really lose.”
    â€œPeri isn’t a target. She’s a person. She’s my sister. She’s your daughter. ” I drop the knife I’m holding. “I won’t do it.”
    â€œLark,” my father says. “There are other ways to teach her.” There’s a softness to his voice I haven’t heard before. He watches my mother with pleading eyes.
    â€œMeadow will do this,” my mother says. “Or else.”
    My father looks down at his toes. I have never seen him respond this way before, never seen him back down.
    â€œThis has gone too far!” I step away. “If I go on shore and someone comes for me, I’ll kill them. I’ll kill for a job, too. I promise I will. I get it now.”
    â€œYou don’t,” my father says, his voice soft.
    â€œI won’t use my little sister’s skull as target practice!” I turn to my brother. “Koi?”
    He just sighs. “I’m not in position to defend you anymore, Meadow.”
    Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Trace’s red hair whipping in the wind like rays of sunlight. My father’s dead because I didn’t train hard enough. My mother’s dead because I was too afraid to kill someone to save her.
    I grit my teeth. “If I do this, and I fail, she dies.”
    My mother nods. “She won’t die, because you won’t fail.”
    I won’t do it. I won’t.
    But I find myself picking up my father’s dagger. The prize, if I complete his precious Fear Trials. It feels good in my hand. Weighted perfectly. I look at the target, feel the way the wind is blowing across my face. I know how to throw it correctly. I just didn’t need to. Until now.
    â€œBe brave, Meadow,” my father says. He squeezes my shoulder once. And I know in my heart that he won’t relent until I complete his test.
    â€œDon’t be afraid, Peri,” I say.
    â€œI’m not afwaid,” she says back. She’s a child. She’s a child and she doesn’t understand.
    I close my eyes and breathe. When I open them, there is no hesitation. I throw the dagger. It whirls through the air, almost in slow motion.
    There is a satisfying thwack when it hits the center of the target. Peri cheers. My father nods, and Koi pats me on the back.
    â€œI never doubted you for a second,” my mother pulls me into her arms and kisses the top of my head.
    My father joins in. “How does it feel? Amazing, right?”
    â€œNo,” I whisper. “It doesn’t feel good at all.”
    It doesn’t feel good because I liked the feeling of winning, liked the rush I felt when the dagger hit the target, cold and sharp, deadly and true.
    I slump to my knees.
    The Fear Trials is changing me.
    I am becoming my father’s perfect daughter.

Chapter 13
    L ater, I sit on the deck and listen to the sirens wail. Then I wait for Trace’s message.
    Tonight the moon is covered in clouds as thick as cotton. It is so black I can hardly see my hands in front of my face.
    There’s a whooshing noise, then a twang, as Trace’s arrow lodges itself into the floorboards. I think I hear footsteps behind me, but when I whirl around, no one is there. I set my mother’s crossbow down and read