Sweetly (33 page)

Authors: Jackson Pearce

Tags: #JUV012040

BOOK: Sweetly

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Gretchen:
I don’t know. Sometimes, before we got to Live Oak and I knew the truth about the monsters, it was like I had a normal life. Every now and then, when I’d get caught up in the moment and for a little while forget that I had a missing twin, I’d feel like I fit in, like I was the same as everyone else. But with your sister, you
always
had to be a hunter. Did you ever get to feel normal?

Rosie:
Normal compared to what? It was normal, as far as I was concerned, to wake up and stretch and go get in a fistfight with my sister to practice attacking monsters. For some people it’s normal to get up and go to school. I think you create your own normal, for better or for worse. Did I know I was different from other girls? Yes, of course. I mean, forget the Fenris. Other girls went to school and had mothers and fathers and dogs and didn’t know anything about knives. But I still felt normal. Do you think you’re more or less normal now than you were back in Washington?

Gretchen:
I feel…more normal, actually. Which is weird, because it’s not more normal to know about monsters and go looking for them to shoot them and see the sort of horrible things I’ve seen. But knowing the truth about what’s really in the woods makes me feel more normal because it’s kind of like…knowing what
they
are helps me know who and what I am. Weren’t you scared, though, growing up knowing what the wolves were?

Rosie:
No. I mean, yes, of course—they’re scary. But my sister was never afraid, not really, so I wasn’t either. Because she knew we could take them, I knew we could take them. If I’d been alone, though…I would have been scared if I was alone. Sometimes I’m still scared, being apart from her. Are you and your brother like that?

Gretchen:
I… I’m not sure
what
my brother and I are like. I think he’s still getting used to the idea that I’m not the same person I was back in Washington. That I’m not fragile anymore. I don’t think he dislikes it, but sometimes he talks to me like we’ve just met. I guess we have, in a way. Things like what happened in Live Oak change you from your core; all tragedies and victories do. When my sister vanished, it changed my parents. When Naida was taken, it changed Sophia.…I think when you’re healing, sometimes things grow back different from what they were before. The chocolate festival definitely made me and Ansel grow back different.

Rosie:
Sometimes I’m worried that Scarlett and I will be like that when we’re back together again—whenever that is. I’m different now, and she is too. I’m worried everything won’t click into place like before.

Gretchen:
Would you go back and change things, though, if you could? Stay with her?

Rosie:
No. That would have been easier, maybe, but I know going our own ways for a while was for the best. But knowing you’ve made the right decision doesn’t mean that it was an easy decision. I was happy before, hunting with her, but I’m happy in new ways now. I’m happy in ways that feel permanent. What about you? Would you change anything?

Gretchen:
I’d change almost everything. Or at the very least, I’d find a way to save Sophia. I know she was doing something horrible, unforgivable, but…I don’t think she meant to. I think she made a choice a long time ago, a terrible choice, and then turned around and realized she’d gotten in over her head, too far in to back out. I think she would have been more like you, maybe, if she’d had the chance.

Rosie:
She did have the chance, though—she didn’t have to help them. I sound like Scarlett when I say that, but…Sophia made a choice. Just as you did. It’s not your fault her choice led to her death.

Gretchen:
No, but…I don’t think she had much of a choice. Wouldn’t you do anything to save your sister?

Rosie:
Yes. That’s true.

Gretchen:
I think she made the only choice she could. And then I feel bad for thinking that, since so many girls died at her festivals…but I can’t bring myself to hate her. All I can do is feel sorry for her and feel guilty that I couldn’t help her.

Rosie:
Now
you
sound like Scarlett. You’re going more her path than mine at the moment, really—going out to help Naida, to fight more Fenris.…

Gretchen:
Are you and Silas done for good? No more hunting?

Rosie:
No. Being a hunter… it never really stops for good. We’ll start again, eventually. When the time is right. And you and Samuel will stop when the time is right. But for now… I’m happy. Are you?

Gretchen:
I am. Despite everything, I really am.

Contents

FRONT COVER IMAGE

WELCOME

DEDICATION

PROLOGUE: (TWELVE YEARS AGO)

CHARACTER INTERVIEW: GRETCHEN AND ROSIE

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First eBook Edition: August 2011

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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

ISBN: 978-0-316-12575-8