Mona did not get her answer that night.
Joan held it.
She was good at holding things, the only one of them with nothing in her chest to ding off, and she'd decided the question deserved a room, not a corner.
So the room happened the next evening, in the dorm, with the whole pack folded into it because Mona wouldn't sit still until everyone she could see was somewhere she could see them.
"Why is everyone here," Maren said, flat on her stomach across the foot of the bed.
"Mona herded us," Selah said.
"Mona can't herd. "
"She used it on you twice. You're here."
Maren had no answer to that. She put her face in the blanket.
◆◆◆◆
Joan sat against the wall with Mona in front of her, cross-legged, lenses up, waiting.
"You asked me something," Joan said.
"Augh."
"Whether it's wrong. To want him only for yourself." Joan said it plain, no softening.
