I sighed and rolled onto my stomach. “Does Jeb have to get his way every single time?”

Jamie thought for a moment, then nodded. “Pretty much, yeah.”

I took a big bite of bread. When I was done chewing, I said, “I think I’ll eat in here from now on.”

“Ian’s going to ask you questions tomorrow when you’re weeding the spinach. Jeb’s not making him—he wants to.”

“Well, that’s wonderful.”

“You’re pretty good with sarcasm. I thought the parasites—I mean the souls—didn’t like negative humor. Just the happy stuff.”

“They’d learn pretty quick in here, kid.”

Jamie laughed and then took my hand. “You don’t hate it here, do you? You’re not miserable, are you?”

His big chocolate-colored eyes were troubled.

I pressed his hand to my face. “I’m fine,” I told him, and at that moment, it was entirely the truth.

CHAPTER 26: Returned

CHAPTER 26

Returned

Without ever actually agreeing to do it, I became the teacher Jeb wanted.

My “class” was informal. I answered questions every night after dinner. I found that as long as I was willing to do this, Ian and Doc and Jeb would leave me alone during the day so that I could concentrate on my chores. We always convened in the kitchen; I liked to help with the baking while I spoke. It gave me an excuse to pause before answering a difficult question, and somewhere to look when I didn’t want to meet anyone’s eyes. In my head, it seemed fitting; my words were sometimes upsetting, but my actions were always for their good.

I didn’t want to admit that Jamie was right. Obviously, people didn’t like me. They couldn’t; I wasn’t one of them. Jamie liked me, but that was just some strange chemical reaction that was far from rational. Jeb liked me, but Jeb was crazy. The rest of them didn’t have either excuse.

No, they didn’t like me. But things changed when I started talking.

The first time I noticed it was the morning after I answered Doc’s questions at dinner; I was in the black bathing room, washing clothes with Trudy, Lily, and Jamie.

“Could you hand me the soap, please, Wanda?” Trudy asked from my left.

An electric current ran through my body at the sound of my name spoken by a female voice. Numbly, I passed her the soap and then rinsed the sting off my hand.

“Thank you,” she added.

“You’re welcome,” I murmured. My voice cracked on the last syllable.

I passed Lily in the hall a day later on my way to find Jamie before dinner.

“Wanda,” she said, nodding.

“Lily,” I answered, my throat dry.