Bones of Salt

Jonathan

Jonathan saw Roman looking at Atticus' Apparition every day. He wanted to tell his friend something, but he never found the right words.

It wasn't difficult to imagine, Jonathan not knowing what to say. He always used a lot of words when they weren't required, but he'd never had the vocabulary to explain his feelings.

So, every day, he just supposed he'd speak his mind another day.

One day, the Court came, along with Athanasios, to visit the new recruits. The other four members had accepted Bertha's apology, and decided to keep her in their ranks.

"I've heard," Naftali told Evangeline. "That you will specialize in medicine, and stay at the training to be an intern for the nurse."

Evangeline, usually shy and bookish, beamed. "Yes, sir, that's correct. I love reading, and I think the library that Mira built at the training helped me decide my path."

Jonathan noticed how everyone was carefully cutting out Minx from their sentences.

"Reading is actually one of my passions," he said. "Legends, mostly."

Evangeline gave him the stink eye. Naftali fell for it. "That's good, boy," he replied. "But read non-fiction once in a while. Eye-opening stuff."

Jonathan decided not to tell him that he actually couldn't read at all.

"Take Chae-Won," Naftali continued. "She's so mysterious. I figured she would betray us before Bertha did. Quite a mysterious character, that one. Hard to pin down. And Tori? I don't know if that woman has ever stopped once in her life, looked at a sunset, read a book... those things are what form our attitude and our personality, in the end."

Jonathan left Naftali to his musings, and decided to check out on his friends, who were talking to Bertha, probably unwillingly.

The woman kept telling them sheepishly that she'd had a nervous breakdown, and that now she was seeing someone and she promised to do better in the future. It sounded very much like the rehearsed excuse she'd already issued.

"Now," she said. "I'll go inside to talk to Mira."

Jonathan had his doubts the tutor would want to stay alone with Bertha, but he didn't voice them. However, Roman said, "I don't trust her. I think something's about to go wrong."

Matias and Cypress just exchanged glances. Jonathan, however, decided to act on it. "Roman is right. I think he and I should go inside and see what Bertha is planning to do."

"Well," Cypress shrugged. "I hadn't bought her apologies either way, you know."

Jonathan was glad Roman had been the first to voice what he himself had been feeling, because he trusted the Speaker's instincts. There was mutual respect and admiration between the two of them.

When they went inside, Bertha wasn't in the hall. Mira was there, however, talking to Darcy.

"Uh-uh. This already looks bad," Jonathan said.

"No kidding," Roman commented. "It's Darcy."

Darcy pretended she hadn't heard, and swept her curly hair over her shoulder. "Are you looking for that middle-aged woman who's part of the Court?" she asked. "She went to the Sanatorium."

Jonathan and Roman both sped up rapidly to the room where the nurse worked. When they arrived, the door was locked.

In the moment of panic where they had to decide what to do, Matias arrived and kicked down the door.

"The Blood," he grunted. "It makes us stronger." Cypress was following him along.

"At first," Matias explained. "I didn't want you to go because I, too, believed Bertha was up to no good. But we have already lost Atticus. We don't have to lose anyone else."