Chapter Nine
The sun had already peeked over the horizon when voices from the ground woke Nola. She couldn’t make out any words in the sleepy murmurs but blinking away the clouds her tears had left behind, dozens of shapes appeared in the dim light. People making their way home. She rubbed her eyes, feeling their swelling under her fingers.
She watched the group move, waiting for her mother to come toward their house. But Lenora wasn’t with them. Digging her fingers into the moss, Nola climbed back through her window and crept to her mother’s room. It was empty, as was the rest of the house. Nola stood in the pale darkness.
A void had swallowed her whole. Her tears had dried up. But she had thought that before. When her father died, when Kieran was banished, when the domes were attacked
