Crown’s Plank (twenty-three) Unbridled

“Miss Sella! Are you toying with us? Here we all sit, your audience, waiting for something of substance from you for the first time since you arrived here. Has your time alone taught you nothing?” Tobi locked eyes with Miss Antonina, alarm bells sounding...

Crown’s Plank (twenty-four) Save

Tess saw the flinching of Tobi’s muscles, a flicker of insanity in the seductive green specks of Tobi’s eyes. If only there were some god that she could plead to. She knew she had to think fast. She had seen the fly slam against the rock at Tobi’s...

Crown’s Plank (twenty-five) Empty Watchtower

Before Tobi could further spew forth her madness, a second fly dropped. Then, a third and a fourth until an avalanche of flies poured down where she sat as if she were caught in a sudden November storm. Each individual one, heavy from feasting, peddled its spindly...

Crown’s Plank (twenty-six) Sowing Circles

Tess couldn’t begin to speculate as to how long she had been unconscious. When she awoke, she seemed to still be in the clearing, but the other girls were gone. She found herself naked and alone, floating in a shallow pool of water where the boulder that Tobi...