Page 20 of The Flame

I pulled up the collar of my coat against the chill and knocked again. The curtain across the front window twitched. I didn’t knock again. Jessie could take as long as she wanted, but I knew she’d answer.

It was another minute before she opened the door, dressed in a full length coat and winter boots. She tucked a loose curl behind her ear as she looked at me, saying nothing.

“Can we talk?” I said.

Her usual smile was nowhere to be seen. “Actually, I was just on my way out.”

“This won’t take long.”

She pulled a face, and didn’t move to let me inside. She could be stubborn when she got an idea into her head. But I wasn’t some imposter posing as her former best friend. It was just me. It had always been just me.

“Jessie, please.”

With a sigh, she finally stepped back.

I pressed forward and closed the door behind me. “Jessie, my mother is a Sister of Capra. I never knew about it until she inducted me into the Sisterhood when I turned sixteen. We’re sworn to secrecy. I seriously thought—or at least, I hoped—you were also in the Sisterhood.”

Jessie folded her arms, not looking me in the eye. She was listening, but I wasn’t sure she was hearing.

“Anyway, the first contact I ever had with the Sisters of Capra was after we’d graduated. Until then, they were just a vague concept. But then I married a warden, Roman, and they had a mission for me.”

Her gaze slowly tracked to me, as if interested despite herself.

“One mission,” I told her. “Everything else, going outside the walls and visiting The Smoke, that had nothing to do with me being a Sister. That was all just me and my curiosity. That’s who I am, who I’ve always been. I never hid myself, not from you, and if you can’t see that, then maybe at some point you just stopped seeing me.”

Her chin lifted, and a dismissive noise escaped her throat. She thought I was trying to turn the blame onto her. I wasn’t. I just wanted to open her eyes, before I lost my best friend.

“Is that all?” she said.

There was one more thing, and I didn’t hesitate. Whatever else happened between us, Iknewmy best friend. I knew I could trust her, even if she decided she could no longer trust me. She would never go blabbing my secrets.

“Daniel Edgar and some of the other, older heirs, are locked up at the Guard Station across from Berkley House. The Sisterhood believes they’re a threat, and plans to send them to rehab. I don’t yet know how, but I’m going to get them out.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re going to break them out of prison?”

“Probably not.” I grimaced. “I’ve managed to get a position at the rehab center. I’m hoping it’ll be easier to find an opportunity there than at the Guard Station. Like I said, I don’t exactly have a plan yet.”

“Why are you telling me?” Her eyes flattened again. “Have you finally decided I’m good enough to help your causes?”

The way she said it, she wasn’t offering. It was more like an accusation.

“I’d love all the help I can get,” I said anyway. “But I don’t even know how I’m going to do it, let alone how anyone else can help. I just wanted you to know what’s going on.”

Jessie said nothing.

That was okay.

Well, notokay, my heart was still sore at the distance between us, but I’d said what I’d come to say.

I opened the door, had already stepped outside before I found one more thing to say. “Jessie, I love you. I would never knowingly do anything to hurt you. Whatever else, I hope you can believe that.”

Then I left. I did glance back when I grabbed my bicycle, and again just before I started pedaling away, but she didn’t appear in the doorway.

Later that afternoon, I received a message from Janice Clearwater instructing me to present myself at Berkley House tomorrow at 8:40 sharp.

The following morning, as I was getting ready to leave, a voice message came in from Roman. He would be home this evening. Relief washed over me. I didn’t even care how cold his mood was, I just wanted him here. This cabin felt empty without him.

When I arrived at Berkley House, a couple of minutes early, Janice Clearwater was already waiting for me in the entrance hall with another woman, whom she introduced as Belinda Hart, the other approved volunteer who’d be joining us today.

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