The Fear Trials Read Online Free PDF Page B

Trace’s note.
    I saw what you did today.
    My blood goes cold. I picture Trace standing on her boat, watching me throw a dagger at Peri’s head. She must think I’m heartless.
    I scribble back an explanation. It looks so pathetic. I shouldn’t care about what this girl thinks. And yet I so desperately want her to understand.
    I didn’t have a choice.
    I shoot my arrow and wait. The moon appears, illuminating the sea. I get a glimpse of Trace’s boat. I see her slender frame as she bends to get my arrow. And there’s another figure, too. Someone tall and strong.
    Someone who doesn’t belong.
    A man.
    My heart speeds up, slamming against my ribs. Trace is busy writing a note back to me. She doesn’t know he’s there. He moves slowly. Methodically. Silently.
    I wave my hands, try to get her attention, but the clouds race across the moon again, dousing the light. “Trace!” I scream.
    But she doesn’t respond. I knock an arrow onto my mother’s bow and shoot it blindly, hear the thwack as it hits her boat. “Come on, come on . . .”
    There’s a scream that pierces the night.
    â€œTrace!” I rush for the railing, set to dive in. But warm hands haul me back.
    â€œLeave it, Meadow,” Koi hisses in my ear. “There’s nothing you can do.”
    I struggle against him, but he’s too strong.
    â€œI have to help her!”
    I don’t know how he knows about Trace, if he saw me writing to her or caught me stealing his pencils and paper. But he’s here now, and he won’t let me go. “If you go over there, you will die. You’re not ready yet.”
    â€œBut she’s my friend!”
    I feel his hot breath against my cheek. “We have no friends. Only this family, on this boat. Let it go.”
    There are no more screams from Trace’s boat. The clouds move again, and I see the man’s silhouette. He dives into the waves and disappears. I aim for him, but the water is black. It’s pointless.
    Then a wailing, sobbing. I can’t tell if it’s Trace or her little sister. I can’t see anything, I don’t know what happened.
    The sobbing continues through night, and when darkness fades and the sun takes its place, I finally understand.
    I watch in horror as Trace dumps her little sister’s body into the sea.

Chapter 14
    W hen I’m beneath the waves, nothing else matters.
    I am a part of the water and it’s all around me, and here I feel safe.
    It’s only an illusion. I have to come up for air eventually, and when I do, my father is watching me. He and Koi are sitting in the dinghy. It bobs up and down in the waves. “How long can you swim for?” my father asks me.
    I kick my legs to stay afloat. “I don’t know. An hour, maybe.”
    â€œThat’s good,” Koi says, nodding. He looks at my father before he speaks. “I can go for two without stopping.”
    I am tired of him acting like this, like his whole world revolves around my father’s approval.
    â€œOh yeah?” I splash him. “I think you’re lying.” He doesn’t smile, so I splash him again. “Lighten up, Koi.”
    â€œStop it, Meadow.”
    â€œ Stop it, Meadow ,” I mimic him, and finally, he smiles.
    He dives into the waves, tackling me. We sink under, and it’s like we are little kids again.
    When we come back up, my father almost looks like he used to. Calm and gentle, without a care in the world.
    â€œYou should come for a swim,” I say. “It’s hot out.”
    Koi nods, running his hands through his hair. “Yeah, Dad. Come on. You could use a day off. We can relax a little.”
    Our father almost looks like he wants to say yes. But then, as always, his smile goes away. “I want you both to swim until you can’t anymore. No stopping to rest. Meadow, you will win.”
    I think of all the times Koi and I used to play games as