The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four) Read Free

tour every fall to the new politicians in town, but of course you are more aware of the history of Coronation than they are.”
    “She has been taught,” said Galen. “And I think it would be good if she told the story to us. Go ahead, Kim. Tell us what happened the night Donna Stallworth died.”
    Kim bit down on her tongue. Her father was making her so angry. He was doing it on purpose. He’s trying to get a rise out of me so he can tear me down again. I won’t give him the satisfaction.
    Calmly, she said, “Donna’s mother tied her up, put her in the back seat of their car, and made a run for Canada. They were all the way to Niagara Falls when Do nna slipped loose from the rope holding her wrists. From the back seat, Donna used the rope to strangle her mother. She left her mother’s corpse on the side of the road and drove all the way back to Potomac to go to prom. She walked into the cage and bared her neck for Steffy Esparza, who killed her.”
    “That was a lovely retelling of an important piece of our history,” said Edith. “If I may, I’d like to add one detail. Donna was twenty minutes late to prom that night. For a short time, it appeared there would be no victim for the new immortal. Daciana found it to be incredibly distasteful. New immortals are so very hungry after they are first made. Daciana swore that never again would the Coronation winner have to wait. And that is why we have the Purgatory House. Beginning the year after Donna Stallworth’s tardy arrival to prom, and continuing every year since, the loser of Coronation comes here as soon as the results are final. The Purgatory House is a place where the new immortal’s first meal is kept safe and secure, and is a retreat where a girl facing her final day on this earth can rest and reflect.”
    Edith’s words hung in the air for a minute, then she said in a chipper voice, “Shall we continue the tour?”
    For the next hour, Kim suffered through Edith’s nasal, squawking voice as she explained all the traditions of the Purgatory House. Like everything else about Coronation, the final hours of the loser’s life were governed by rituals that had developed over the decades, like the white dress she wore when she died, one that contrasted the black of her immortal killer, and also turned bright red with her own blood. Or the adornments on her outfit when she died—items the girl hand-picked to honor the contest, the school, and the clan.
    Edith was full of stories about the odd eccentricities of these girls in their final hours. Many of them demanded (and received) conjugal visits from the boys they were dating. Others made lavish requests for final meals, and Thorndike worked hard to provide them with whatever they wanted. “Turkey dinners, leg of lamb, birthday cake…” Edith had a huge menu of final meals in her memory. “Last year’s loser asked for mincemeat pie. The year before the girl wanted a salami sandwich.”
    “What would you ask for, Kim?” said Galen. “For your final meal.”
    “Nothing,” Kim said. “I’d go hungry.”
    “Not an unpopular choice,” said Edith. “Many girls refuse their last meal.”
    “Are we done here?” said Kim.
    “Not until we’ve looked outside and spoken about the walk,” said Galen.
    “Yes, of course,” said Edith. “Follow me.”
    She took them back across the living room and into the back bedroom of the house, showing them to a door that led outside.
    “The girl knows implicitly when it’s time for her to begin the walk,” Edith said. “It never ceases to amaze me. At precisely ten-fifty-nine, the girl walks through this door.”
    Edith pulled on the flower-covered door, which opened to a narrow garden pathway, with shrubbery on both sides and a vine-covered trellis overhead.
    “In May, this pathway becomes one of the most beautiful places on earth,” Edith said. “Flowers in bloom on all sides of you, the moon twinkling down through the vines above. All by herself, with