The Undoing by Shelly Laurenston Page A

working around the Protectors. Unlike her sister-Crows whom she loved so dearly, the Protectors were wonderfully, unabashedly, almost obsessively quiet.
    Not one of them was an actor or a musician or a model or a superstar with an entourage. They were all lawyers, social workers, judges, police detectives. They took the ideal of justice very seriously and tried, in their own Viking way, to give back to the community.
    She admired that even while knowing she could never do it herself. Their jobs required too much time talking to people. Listening to them. Dealing with them. Since she was a child, there was nothing Jace hated more.
    Much to her grandmother’s great annoyance, Jace would often disappear with a pile of books and a candy bar, forcing the entire family to come looking for her. She was often found up in trees, under the house, in the backseat of someone’s car, or in the attic of a family member. Any place she could find peace and solitude was where one could find Jacinda Berisha.
    But that idyllic life had ended when her mother had come for her. When she’d taken her to the cult, where peace and solitude were not allowed. Alone time meant introspective thoughts that, even at a young age, Jace knew would lead to life outside the cult. Something the Great Prophet of the time would never allow. So, for sixteen years, Jace never had any time to herself except when she was studying or searching out proof to back up the current Great Prophet’s claims about the end of the world.
    Then she’d become a Crow and all that had changed. True, in the beginning, the Crows tried to make her feel welcome. Tried to get her to join in. But, eventually, they realized that she didn’t want any of that. She mostly wanted to be left alone, and when she didn’t, she’d let them know. Much to her surprise at the time, the Crows were fine with that.
    Until Rachel, for some unknown reason, had decided to make Jace her personal pet project.
    Maybe she was hoping to show Skuld that she would be a good leader, but from what Jace had seen of other Crow leaders she’d met, including Chloe, they didn’t have to show anything. They just were and Skuld knew it.
    The problem with Rachel, though, was that she was painfully hardheaded. Explaining to her that none of this would help her or Jace was just a waste of breath. She believed exactly what she wanted to believe until proven wrong. And it was hard to prove that being left alone was in a person’s best interest. It was human nature to assume that everyone wanted to be part of a pack. That everyone wanted tons of friends, popularity, and things to do on a Saturday night.
    In Rachel’s mind, Jace was just a tragically shy girl who would get her rage under control once she went barhopping a few times with “her girls.”
    Jace realized the Protector hadn’t walked away and she glared up at him. “I said I wasn’t hungry.”
    â€œI’m not offering you food,” he replied. Although he didn’t sound angry, more amused.
    â€œThen what do you want?”
    â€œFor you to leave.”
    â€œHuh? Why?” She rushed to explain what she’d been doing all day, pointing at the computer they’d given her. “I already have the first two boxes of books listed with title, author, and basic theme. I haven’t gotten to the other boxes, but I will soon and—”
    â€œJace, I’m not firing you.”
    â€œYou’re not?”
    â€œNo. I’m telling you to get out because we don’t allow non-Protectors in the library when we’re not here.”
    â€œWhere are you going?”
    â€œOn a job.”
    â€œIn the daytime?” she asked, shocked. Did Tyr protect his warriors in the day? Why didn’t Skuld do that for her Crows?
    But instead of answering her, the Protector grabbed the back of her seat and turned the entire thing around so that she was facing the big,