Chapter 28

When Alcina is ten years old, she learns, for the first time, what it means to be discarded.

It’s a strange concept for a child so young to learn; at the age of ten, most children are preoccupied with learning how to navigate that peculiar space, of being everything that matters, the center of the universe, to their parents. 

Instead, Alcina learned the deafening quietness of the spaces in which she’d been placed, out of sight, out of mind, and the hushed whispers that followed her wherever she went.

Like the spare, which was defective.

At twelve, Alcina loses herself to the fantasy world inside her head. She imagines what her life might have been like if she had been born with a Gift - any Gift - like she’d been supposed to have.

At fourteen, she begins the painful and not at all pleasant process of learning to hide herself away, even before anyone asks.

This is also the age where she starts t