Pronuk, Julie Steimle [ebook reader browser TXT] 📗

Arden next, but he also looked at her with convinced dismay that she had done the unthinkable. And because of that she broke down and cried the rest of the trial, having nothing else to say in her defense.

When her sentencing came, she lifted her chin then her chest and stared defiantly at the council and her leaders, her green eyes still wet though her lip no longer quivered.

“Cadet Zormna Clendar, you are sentenced to a week in the brig followed by a month of labor. Your flight privileges are suspended until you have proven yourself worthy of them. You will be confined to the Alpha district for the duration of your punishment.” The Council head finished with a sneer at the small cadet that had gone before them many times before for pranks. It was harsher punishment than Cadet Lenn was given, mostly due to her defiance.

But Zormna did not turn away her eyes when she heard it. She gave him a sharp and accepting nod, her pride evident in the squaring of her tiny shoulders.

Waiting for the guards to escort her out, Zormna lifted up her wrists for bracer cuffs with a scowl at the guards as they bound her wrists. She did not look at Cadet Lenn or at her supervisors. Instead, she stared directly ahead as they escorted her out of the room. She stopped only once. It was at the door right next to the Kevin who was still looking horribly disappointed in her, and she peered directly at him. “I didn’t do it, whether you believe me or not.”

The guards pushed her out the door and marched her down the hall to the transport platform. The Kevin’s face flushed, watching her get taken away. Her posture was so much like her uncle’s, but her glare was her father’s.

Alea Arden stood alongside him. He just shook his head. “I never would have thought it of her.”

The Kevin nodded. Neither had he.

 

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Publication Date: 02-26-2018

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