Artemisia High

15 | Unravel

"Are you alright?" Jacin asked Winter. They were sitting at lunch and Winter hadn't eaten anything.

"Just some stuff from the dance."

"Aces, Winter... now I wish I had been there. What happened?"

"Remember my dear cousin Selene?"

Jacin smiled. His blue eyes sparkled and the rising sun in his smile came out.

"How could I forget her?"

"Neither could I. I found her, Jacin."

Jacin's eyes went wide. "Wha— at the dance?!"

"Yes, Jacin."

"Selene Blackburn is alive? And she goes to our school?"

Winter nodded. "I was just as shocked as you are when I found her there."

"Stars... what does this mean? I mean, this has to be important. They said she was kidnapped, killed!"

"I don't know, Jacin... I don't know..."

❂

Finding Winter was a lot harder than Cinder imagined.

Cinder knew nothing about the girl other than her name, her face, and her family. She asked everyone she knew whether they knew Winter, but to no avail. She had no idea what classes she had or where she went after school. Cinder certainly couldn't use her phone, either, seeing as Adri confiscated it the minute Cinder woke up to fend for her own breakfast.

Cinder craned her neck all around looking for a glimpse of Winter's ringlets in the hallway, but she never saw them. All that served to do was get Scarlet to tease her and Cinder to occasionally bump into people she didn't see.

Finally, Cinder made some progress at the most random moment.

She went to the bathroom during her 5th period to get away from it all. She splashed some water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone leaving the bathroom. The head of luscious, pitch black curls told her who it was.

"Winter!" Cinder exclaimed, chasing after the girl who had exited the bathroom. Winter turned back to look at her.

"Selene! Hello."

"It's Cinder."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Listen, I need to talk to you. You need to ask your mother about me."

"Stepmother? Why would she tell me anything?"

"I dunno. I mean, she's your parent. I figured she would tell you something if you played your cards right."

Winter gave Cinder a sad smile. "I've tried to break open her shell, but—"

"Alright. Then you tell me about her."

"Well, I know she was your mother's younger sister. Your mother passed away when you were a toddler. At the time I didn't know what of, but now I know it was pneumonia because AIDS had weakened her immune system. After she died, you were set to inherit Blackburn, Co., but not until you came of age. So Stepmother—sorry, Levana—she inherited it until you could."