The Fear Trials by Lindsay Cummings Page A

think. I swing inside the car. I roll to my feet, and dive for Trace.
    She screams as I slam her against the wall.
    â€œYou’re going to die!” I wind up for a punch, but she whirls me around so she has the advantage.
    â€œI didn’t have a choice!” Trace screams. She punches me across the cheek and I taste blood. “She had to be kept safe!”
    Peri is dead. Trace has killed her. But then Peri moves. She opens her eyes, blinking sleep from them. When she sees me, she smiles. “Meadow?”
    I try to run to her, but Trace holds me back. “She’s not yours! You can’t touch Anna!”
    I freeze. “ Anna? That’s not Anna. That’s my sister!”
    But Trace isn’t listening. She’s dragging me towards the edge of the open car. She’s going to try and throw me out. I struggle, but she’s too strong. She’s trained for this.
    Where is my father? He should have been right behind me.
    â€œWake up, Trace!” I scream. “You’re delirious. That’s Peri. She isn’t your sister. Your sister is dead.”
    I bite her hand, taste her blood, and she releases me. I whirl around, kick her knee from the socket. She falls, but stands back up, pops it back in place, and laughs. “I’m a better fighter. You won’t win.”
    I advance. I grab my father’s dagger from my thigh, swing it wide, and miss.
    â€œPathetic!” she says. She spits out a mouthful of blood, and her eyes are wild. We circle each other like sharks. “You don’t deserve to have a family.”
    â€œYou don’t deserve to be alive,” I say. She freezes. Her eyes flit to Peri and back, and before I can stop her, she’s rushed to my sister and pulled her into her arms.
    â€œDon’t touch her!” I scream.
    But she grabs a knife from her belt and presses it to Peri’s throat. “Don’t move. If you come any closer, she dies.”
    Peri whimpers. She’s got tears running down her cheeks, and her gray eyes are boring into mine.
    My voice is hardly a whisper. “Don’t hurt her. Please.”
    â€œWhen this train stops, I’m leaving. I’m taking her with me, and if you follow, I’ll slit her throat.”
    â€œBut she’s . . . she’s not Anna,” I say. “She’s got her own family. Just let her go. Anna wouldn’t want to see you this way, Trace. Stop. Please.”
    â€œYou don’t know what Anna wanted!” Trace screams. She presses the knife against Peri’s throat. A trickle of blood runs down my sister’s neck.
    The train is slowing down. I glimpse a town in the distance. Cortez. I have seconds before we reach the station.
    â€œYou don’t have to do this, Trace,” I say. My fingers tighten on the handle of my father’s dagger. “You can let her go, and we can go separate ways. You can live.”
    She laughs again, a cold cackle that makes my hair stand on end. “What are you going to do if I don’t hand her over, Meadow? Are you going to kill me?” She spits again, a mouthful of blood. “You don’t have the guts.”
    The train comes to a stop. Trace edges closer to the exit, dragging Peri with her. “I’m leaving now.”
    â€œYou’re not going anywhere,” I say. This is the moment my father talked about. This is the moment where everything is about to change. “Peri. Close your eyes.”
    I grit my teeth and throw the dagger. It whirls, handle over blade, and lodges itself in Trace’s throat.
    She gasps. A fountain of red. She stumbles back, eyes wide, clutching for the dagger, but it’s too late. I hear her throat rattle, a final breath, before she sinks to the floor.

Chapter 21
    P eri is strong.
    She doesn’t cry the entire train ride home. She doesn’t even cover her ears when darkness falls and the alarm begins to wail.
    By the time we are in the dinghy, halfway out