Shadow and Bone

“Is it? What else do you have to do with your days? Make
maps? Fetch inks for some old cartographer?”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a mapmaker.”
“Of course not. And there’s nothing wrong with being a
lizard either. Unless you were born to be a hawk.”
“I’ve had enough of this,” I snarled, and turned my back on
her. I was close to tears and I refused to cry in front of this
spiteful old woman.
“Where are you going?” she called after me, her voice
mocking. “What’s waiting for you out there?”
“Nothing!” I shouted at her. “No one!”
As soon as I said it, the truth of the words hit me so hard
that it left me breathless. I gripped the door handle, feeling
suddenly dizzy.
In that moment, the memory of the Grisha Examiners came
rushing back to me.
I am in the sitting room at Keramzin. A fire is burning in the
grate. The heavyset man in blue has hold of me and he is
pulling me away from Mal.
I feel Mal’s fingers slip as his hand is torn from mine.
The young man in purple picks Mal up and drags him into
the library, slamming the door behind him. I kick and thrash. I
can hear Mal shouting my name.
The other man holds me. The woman in red slides her hand
around my wrist. I feel a sudden rush of pure certainty wash
over me.
I stop struggling. A call rings through me. Something within
me rises up to answer.
I can’t breathe. It’s like I’m kicking up from the bottom of a
lake, about to break the surface, my lungs aching for air.
The woman in red watches me closely, her eyes narrowed.
I hear Mal’s voice through the library door. Alina, Alina.