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Back When the Reckoning Comes Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. They are coming.
  5. I.
  6. II.
  7. III.
  8. Once, they stole away.
  9. IV.
  10. V.
  11. VI.
  12. VII.
  13. VIII.
  14. IX.
  15. X.
  16. XI.
  17. XII.
  18. Those who stayed behind found their own ways to resist.
  19. XIII.
  20. XIV.
  21. They remembered the feeling of their beloveds sold,
  22. XV.
  23. XVI.
  24. XVII.
  25. XVIII.
  26. XIX.
  27. XX.
  28. It took the babies drowning for the rest to say, Enough.
  29. XXI.
  30. XXII.
  31. XXIII.
  32. Tools meant for work became seen as weapons.
  33. XXIV.
  34. XXV.
  35. XXVI.
  36. XXVII.
  37. XXVIII.
  38. When they were caught, punishment was swift and severe in its execution.
  39. XXIX.
  40. Soon it would be morning, and those left behind would prepare for another day.
  41. Acknowledgments
  42. About the Author
  43. Also by LaTanya McQueen
  44. About the Publisher

She forced her shovel down in the dirt once more, but this time the shovel got stuck. This must be it, Mira thought, relief spreading through her at the realization she’d hit across the bones. She dropped the shovel. Her body fell into the dirt, on her knees, and she began to claw with her hands. She clutched fistfuls of the muddied earth and threw them behind her, picking up her pace, getting closer, and her heart raced. She found what her shovel had hit and she leaned closer to look. It was just another piece of rock.

Mira grabbed a chunk of dirt and threw it across the grass in one final, exasperated burst of energy. Her chest heaved as she struggled with the scene before her. “I don’t understand,” she yelled in between breaths. “I thought this was what you wanted!” Mira had gone searching for the graves but the hole she’d dug was empty. No bones lay buried, no graves to be found. None of them were here. Nothing at all.

XX.

IT WAS LONG dark by the time Mira left the fields. She could barely see in front of her and what she did see she didn’t recognize. Something had happened and all the lights were out. She walked slowly, tentatively, afraid of what lurked in the shadows. Fallen branches crackled with her weight. Gnats kept finding their way to her face. She felt the crawl of them on her skin and quickly wiped them away.

Fear kept Mira going. When she thought of the mob of men reaching Jesse’s house—their cries of “Open up!” as they pounded on his door—who knew what they would do when they found him. Maybe he’d left in time. A foolish hope, but one she clung to as she made her way through the dark.

After escaping the fields, Mira decided to go back to the cottage and wait for Jesse. It was the first place he’d go looking for her. She reached the main grounds and stopped at the smokehouse. With the realization that she had made it out okay, her legs weakened and she collapsed on the grass. She was so tired. She didn’t know if she could go any farther, if she could make it to the cottages. Her body wanted to lie on the ground. She wanted to rest, to just lie here and rest.