Page 60 of Remnants
By the time I’ve completed two more animals, tossing them into the air to join the others, she’s found her words. “I think…” She tugs on her hair, rolling her lip between her teeth. “Um…maybe I might…do you think I could…or would she…” Her blue eyes plead at me to understand.
“Hm?”
Mallory hides behind her hands, groaning with frustration. “Why is this so hard?!”
Smiling, I squat and tap the table. She splits her fingers to watch me through them. “Maybe because it means something to you.”
“Is…is that good? Or bad?”
I shrug one shoulder. “I don’t know. You tell me.”
She stares at me, unblinking as she tries to figure it out, then snaps her fingers closed again. “Ugh! I don’t know!” she wails.
Chuckling softly, I return to my position against the wall. “Then you don’t know yet. Don’t force it.”
“Okay.”
Her voice is soft and sad, but she doesn’t realize how muchimprovement she’s already made. That she might ask to see or talk to Raegan when only a month ago she’d been terrified of her. Even if she’d found the courage to ask, I wouldn’t let that meeting happen yet. I can’t risk hurting Raegan if Mallory isn’t ready. When it does happen, it’ll be when I know Mallory won’t run at the sight of her.
“Why do you make those for her?”
Back to the origami, then.
“She likes them.”
“Oh.” Mallory pauses. Thinks. “I like them, too.”
“Mm. Something you two have in common.”
Her mouth pops open, and her lips slide into a shy smile. “Yeah.” She side-eyes the floating paper. “I want one.”
“Then make one.”
“I want one ofthose.”
“No.”
She huffs. “Whynot?”
“These are something special between me and her. It would be wrong of me to share it with anyone else.”
Her face scrunches with confusion. “It’s just paper. What’s so special about it?”
“It’s the meaning behind it. Just for the two of us.” Lifting the latest creature with the others, I drop my gaze to the book and mirror still in front of her. “Are we done for today?”
Mallory slaps her hand over the page. “No! I’m still trying!”
Her focus intensifies on the image and her reflection, her hair and eyes shifting first and easiest. She’s been working on perfecting the rest of the facial features the last few weeks, particularly changingshape and structure.
It’ll be a handy gift once she’s gotten a better handle on it. Once she has the head right, we’ll move on to the body—enough to pass with clothes on—then test if her gift can affect her voice and clothes as well.
I’ve been meeting with her almost weekly since we rescued her to help her with her gift; with Raegan. Of all the children we rescued, she’s the only one we won’t have a place for. There is no witness protection for her because we won’t return her to the family that got rid of her like something defective. It reminds me of my own childhood before the island. How I’d been unwanted by my own parents and given up to the system. Then passed from one foster home to another until the last one sold me to GE, like I was a circus animal.
Unless Aiden can find a family that will happily adopt her with her special talent, it’s more likely Mallory will grow up here. With Briar. With the Guild.
“Yes!” She smiles at me with her borrowed face, blissfully ignorant of the power she’ll have when she’s older.
“Good.”
