Wings of the Walker - CoraLee June Page 0,375

fingers across his jawline before walking towards me.

“My people seem happy,” he said while surveying the space with a pleased grin. Gordon broke out into a loud bark of a laughter while Nikketa tickled his side.

“Can you bring Gordon to town tomorrow? Maverick needs to make some adjustments to the leg.” Hoping I sounded nonchalant, I adjusted my dress. The material had sunk lower on my chest.

“You just want to see me again,” Tallis joked. I wanted to dismiss his flirtatiousness, but I felt too lighthearted and invigorated from teaching to care. I wondered if this is how Mom felt at the end of every day. Happy. Fulfilled. I bumped Tallis’ shoulder while grinning at everyone.

While biting his lip, he leaned over. His lips so close, I could feel their softness on my neck. He then whispered, “I thought we were keeping our bodies to ourselves,” before walking off.

Chapter Five

I woke up the next morning and it hurt to move. My eyes were heavy with sleep. When I rolled my neck, my bones cracked, and loud pops echoed throughout the tiny room. Yesterday was exhausting. God, was this what it felt like to work? If so, count me out.

The Dorms buzzed with excited chatter, and everyone lazily gossiped in the hallways since no one had to work. Pioneer Day was a fun, lazy holiday full of food and games. Cyler started it the year after Mom and Dad died. Since then, it’s grown to be one of the happiest days in the entire province.

Although I liked that it was the one day out of the year that people actually dressed fashionably, it was still an entire day dedicated to the people I missed most. Most of the time, I was left to sulk in my bedroom alone on Pioneer Day. I felt like I couldn’t escape the reminder that the rest of the world kept spinning while I was alone. The only thing left of my parents was an excuse to drink and miss work.

I padded in a somber mood down the tight hallway towards the dining hall. After grabbing a dismal tray of food, I noticed an absurd amount of Walker women wearing familiar dresses. My dresses.

Walkers who normally wore trousers and button-down taupe tops were now decked out in the finest garb. Bright and heavy jewelry lay delicately around their necks, and everywhere I looked, there was an outfit and a memory assaulting me. I grabbed the elbow of a passing Walker woman. She wore an amethyst gown from Ethros that was too tight around her midsection. A gown that once belonged to my Mother.

Mom wore it to the Summer Solstice when I was a little girl. I remember watching her get ready. As she looked in the mirror, her poised fingers applied makeup to her fair skin. I had cried out that I wanted to look like her, so she pretended to brush a thin veil of powder upon my cheeks. She taught me to dance in that dress. I spent the night standing on her toes while she spun me around. Then at the end of the night, I fell asleep on her shoulder by the bonfire. Dad carried me up to the old house and tucked me into my princess bedding.

“Where did you get this dress?!” I hissed while blinking back the memories. I bet the ignorant Walker woman washed it. I bet it no longer smelled of Mom’s rosewater perfume.

The Walker woman looked at me with annoyance, and the entire hall quieted at my outburst. “The woman that lives in Black Manor sent over a box of clothes for us before the Summer Solstice,” she explained while yanking her arm out of my grip.

I slammed my fist on the table and looked around the room before speaking.

“Enjoy these clothes while you can, Walkers. They were MINE and given away without my consent. I want them back in my room by the end of the day!” I screamed. How dare Ashleigh give away my belongings? I waltzed towards the exit while muttering to myself when a stout woman wearing a very familiar ruby gemstone necklace made me pause. Mother’s necklace. The necklace father gave her a few months before…

Before their death. Before I lost them.

“Give me that necklace. Right. Now,” I said through clenched teeth. My hands shook with anger.

“But—but— it was a gift to me!” She clutched at it with her greasy fingers. I wanted to break each of them so she couldn’t touch