“Who bashed whose face in?” Peter asked as he joined them.
“Gabi Lowell, that’s who,” Marnie crowed, hooking a heavy arm around Gabi’s neck. “Girl’s got some balls.”
“MY CROWN of thorns,” Marnie said through a mouthful of smoke when she noticed Gabi staring at her forehead. They were back under their copse of trees by the old tent platform, waiting to be given instructions for the day’s challenge. Today was all about removing the final obstacles to being called. Marnie had chosen Insecurity as a joke, and Gabi picked Weak Faith, hoping to gain points for honesty. Jordan was suffering the enthusiastic attentions of Ginny, who touched the blushing boy at every opportunity. Gabi was dying to know what the fawning redhead was saying and find out why he had picked Selfishness as his primary obstacle, when from what she knew of him he was anything but. Peter had positioned himself some distance from Gabi and Marnie, claiming he didn’t want to risk getting the smoke smell in his clothes. The girls knew he really just wanted to stay in plain view of Zach. The day was clear and relatively warm, and Peter was working up a sweat doing a dramatic series of kicks and punches to show off for his idol.
“They cut your face?” Gabi asked, inspecting the red marks more closely.
“Oh, you should have seen the look on Ruth’s face when she did it,” Marnie scoffed. “Like God himself was patting her on the back. I think it was the peak of her pathetic counseling career.” Marnie shook her head and tossed the filter of her spent cigarette under her shoe. “Whatever. If Ruth thinks a little salty bath time is going to turn me into a robot cheerleader for the fellowship, she’s dead wrong. That was child’s play compared to what I’ve been through. Sorry you had to be there, though, Lowell. I can’t believe she bought that whole story about you sneaking out of services to meet a guy. Fucking ridiculous, no offense.”
Gabi was offended, and clearly it showed.
“Hey, seriously, I didn’t mean to insult you,” Marnie added hastily. “I just meant because you’re Brother Lowell’s daughter, you know? And you don’t really talk to anyone outside your family ever. I know you did it to help me. That was seriously brave, Lowell.” Marnie nudged Gabi with her elbow, and Gabi nodded her forgiveness before the girl broke one of her ribs in her attempt to make peace. There was some new feeling between them that was unfamiliar to Gabi, and a little unsettling. Try as she may, she couldn’t stop thinking about the way Marnie had looked, standing so strong, defiant, and very, very naked in the secret room. “Hey, I heard you puked on Ginny in the bathroom. Was it the blood that made you throw up? It’s okay if it did. Blood makes lots of people queasy.”
“No,” Gabi answered. It wasn’t the blood, but the memories of D Wing and the link forged between Marnie, Marcus, and Nicolas by the scars on their torsos that upset her. She knew the question would haunt her if she didn’t ask, even if doing so meant risking her new bond with Marnie. She sucked in a breath, noting that even without the medication, the oxygen hit a wall about two-thirds of the way into her lungs. “Where did you get that scar, Marnie? The one on the left side of your rib cage? Did one of the Tribes do that to you when you and your parents were doing mission work?” Preparing for a blow, which, having seen Marnie naked, she knew the girl was capable of delivering with lethal force, Gabi poised to duck a swinging fist. But the icy fury on Marnie’s face wasn’t for her.
“The Tribes don’t do that, Lowell. They don’t even call themselves ‘Tribes.’ They’re just people who figured out that the ‘protection’ of the fellowship is just a means of control, courtesy of the council.”
Gabi felt the urge to turn away and run before Marnie could say one more incriminating thing about Gabi’s crumbling world. How much more could she take without losing everything she loved, including the only home she’d ever known?
“But why would the council lie about the Tribes?”
“It’s another way to prove that anyone living outside the fellowship is marked for evil, just like the doctrine says,” Marnie explained, twisting a strand of hair sticky with a fresh coating of gel around one finger, molding it into a knife point.
“But if the Tribe didn’t give you your scar, who did?” Gabi asked, all caution forgotten.
Marnie stepped toward her. “I feel like everything I tell you is a risk, Lowell. You’re so far into that whole world, like your dad’s the king and you’re some princess in a tower.” Gabi opened her mouth to protest, but Marnie held up a silencing hand. “I’m going to tell you anyway, though. Because you showed up for me today, and because screw them. The person who branded me was a Witness. It’s always a Witness. The marks have to be given before anyone can be Returned or accepted as a transfer. The Apostles and their underlings give the brands right away so that other teams won’t know Unitas is behind it. They tell the ‘Tribes’ they have to be marked in order to receive aid, for census purposes. For the missionaries working and living with these people like my parents were, it was a way to flag them as potential threats to the fellowship. The Apostles
