After a minute Alex stood up, stretched his tired limbs, and left too. The Silent boy followed him, both of them careful not to disturb any sleeping bodies on the floor. Henry frowned, but he shuffled away obediently and left the shack carrying the soup.

It would be a sign of acceptance to Carina, who was so mortified that her mother, Eva, had turned against Artimé that she couldn’t bear to look Alex in the eye. They need it most.” Alex swallowed hard and turned away so he wouldn’t be tempted to grab it back again. He handed it back to Henry and shook his head. His empty stomach snarled, begging for it, but Alex hesitated. “Thanks,” he said, breathing in the faint smell of a weak seafood broth.

When Alex turned and focused his bleary eyes on the boys, Henry held out a good-sized half shell he’d been using as a small bowl.Īlex smiled and took it. It was Henry Haluki, Lani’s younger brother, and next to him stood the Silent boy, a ring of thorns threaded through the skin around his neck. “You should eat something,” said a voice at Alex’s shoulder. The robe was Alex’s only symbol of hope in a time that could not possibly be any darker. Today had been wearing when Alex’s Wanted twin brother, Aaron, killed him. Alex had the good fortune of possessing the only robe in existence at this moment-the one Mr. Today had been famous for his colorful robes, and Alex imagined there was some hint of magic to the robes themselves-there must be if Alex had to wear one to make the world of Artimé come back. The only thing Alex truly understood about the clue was the “enrobed” part. He went over the words for the millionth time in his mind.

Today, a cryptic, poetic spell that would fix all Alex’s problems if only he could decipher the clues. In his hand he gripped a piece of paper with a colorful border, which was beginning to smudge, and he never let it go even though he’d memorized the words on it. He stared even now, but he wasn’t seeing anything at all. Sometimes he leaned his head of dark tangled curls or pressed a dirty cheek against the pane to catch a few moments of sleep when he could stay awake no longer. In the weeks since the death of Marcus Today, Alexander Stowe was often seen sitting on a rickety stool, staring out the window of the gray shack, clouding the glass with his breath.

The unwanteds book 3