The White Rose Read Online Free PDF

moving and alive. She rolls onto her back, panting. Her eyes wheel in her head until they find me.
    “Violet?” she croaks. Tears stream down my cheeks, but I don’t bother to wipe them away.
    “I’m here,” I say. “You’re safe now.”
    Her gaze slips to the ceiling. “I saw my mother,” she says. “She was brushing my hair. Then they took all her skin away.”
    “What?” I say. “Your mother is alive and in the Marsh.”
    “They took her skin away,” she says again. “They showed me her bones.”
    Her eyes become unfocused and her body relaxes. She goes very still.
    “Raven?” I whisper. I brush my fingertips across her cheek. She’s breathing, but it’s like a light has been switched off inside her.
    “What did they do to her?” Ash asks in a hushed voice.
    “I—I don’t know.” I run my hands through Raven’s hair and feel a tiny scar, maybe half an inch long, on her scalp.Then I feel another. And another.
    “Well,” Garnet says, clapping his hands together, “this has been a great night, really one for the record books, and as much as I’d love to stay and watch Lucien freak out about all this, I think it’s time for me to be getting back.”
    “Of course it is,” Ash mutters.
    “Hey, I saved your life, what else do you want from me?” Garnet snaps.
    “Absolutely nothing,” Ash says.
    “Right,” Garnet says. “Good luck with all the escaping and whatnot.”
    “Thank you,” I say.
    “Sure.” Garnet’s hand is on the doorknob when Raven sits up. The move is so unexpected and abrupt that I’m barely able to keep the jacket from falling off her shoulders.
    “You’re a coward,” she says, her dark eyes on Garnet. There is a haziness in her gaze, as if she were focusing on two things at once.
    We all stare at her in shocked silence.
    “Raven?” I say tentatively.
    “He’s a coward,” she says. “He breaks all the wrong rules. The easy ones. He’s afraid.” Then her face goes slack, her eyes returning to normal. “I’m tired. It’s not time for the doctor yet.”
    She lies back down on the slab and starts muttering something to herself. I can’t understand what she’s saying, but I hear her name once or twice.
    Garnet watches her for a second, then shakes his head. “Whatever. She’s your problem.”
    With a halfhearted wave, he walks out the door. I putmy hand on Raven’s forehead, but she’s gone back to that empty place, staring at the ceiling.
    “What now?” Ash says.
    “Now we wait for Lucien,” I reply. “Lucien will come.”
    H OURS PASS.
    Or, at least, it feels like hours. There’s no way to tell time in this room. We turned the lights off to be safe. Ash and I sit on the floor against the wall, huddled together to keep warm. Raven hasn’t moved or spoken since Garnet left.
    I wonder what will happen when the Duchess discovers I’m gone. That Ash is gone. I wonder whether Garnet will be able to keep Carnelian from telling. I wonder whether Garnet will tell. He has no loyalty to us and he doesn’t seem particularly trustworthy—I can’t imagine why Lucien chose him to help. Carnelian, at least, can be counted on not to do anything to endanger Ash’s life.
    I remember their exchange in the dungeon. “What did you tell her?” I say. It’s been so long since either of us has spoken, my voice sounds creaky and louder than it should. Ash’s cheek is resting against the top of my head.
    “Mmm?” he breathes against my hair.
    “When Carnelian asked you if anything was real, what did you say?”
    I don’t expect him to hesitate. He lifts his head and turns his face away from me. “That’s private, Violet.”
    “You’re going to keep secrets from me?”
    “How many secrets have you kept from me?” he says.
    I chew on my lip. “That’s not the same. I had to. I made a promise to Lucien.”
    “And what of the promises I’ve made?”
    “But you were hired to make her promises. That isn’t the same as what we have.”
    “I know.”