Page 10 of The Shape of my Scar
Thane spoke up again, this time more seriously. “That’s what we’re doing. Waiting for their hesitation.”
Faolan looked toward the crack in the wall, even though she couldn’t see him. “Do you think it’ll come?”
“Yeah,” he said after a moment. “Because even monsters get tired.”
Someone—Zel, probably—had started a game.
“Names of places,” he’d said. “You can’t repeat, and it has to start with the last letter of the one before.”
“Albania,” Thane started.
“Austria,” said Faolan, drowsy.
“Angola.”
“Armenia.”
“Antarctica.”
“Alabama.”
They all groaned.
“Why do they all end with A?” Maro complained. “We’re gonna die in the A’s.”
“Eilean Aigas,” said Zel.
“That starts with an E,” Maro shouted.
“No, it doesn’t! Why do you think it is pronounced Ay-len Eye-gas?”
“Yes, it does, ya muppet. You are just an idiot who can’t spell.”
“Arkansas,” came Lirian’s quiet voice, interrupting the squabble.
“That’s cheating, it is,” Zel snapped.
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is.”
“It ends with S.”
“The rules say that’s okay!”
“Doesn’t count, you wanker!”
The voices collided, cracked and squeaky. Just like Faolan’s brothers when their voices started cracking.
Faolan, still curled on the floor, smiled faintly against the cool concrete. “You all sound like a bunch of crows.”
There was a beat of silence.
Then laughter filtered through the hole in the wall, echoing through the room like sunlight.
For a moment, they were just kids in the dark.
“And it is a murder of crows, not a bunch,” said Lirian seriously.
