“I’m sorry,” said Benjy, his warm arms wrapped so tightly around me that I could barely breathe, but I would’ve rather had him over oxygen any day. “We had no other choice.”
Knowing Benjy had been in on it lessened my anger only slightly, and I glared at Knox. “You could’ve told me.”
“No, I couldn’t have,” he said. “Your reaction had to be authentic. If I’d told you, you would have given it away even if you hadn’t meant to. I tried to tell you earlier—I’d hoped you would be with the Mercers when I arrived, but of course you were too stubborn to listen to them.”
I shook my head, clutching Benjy and inhaling his scent. Even here, he still smelled like home. “Why did you side with Daxton if you were going to save me and Benjy?”
“Because Daxton needs to believe someone is on his side,” said Knox, leaning against the rail. “I’m the best candidate. He trusts me, and that trust is invaluable. It could mean the difference between losing and winning this war.”
“But you betrayed the Blackcoats,” I said.
He hesitated. “Under Celia’s orders, yes. Sampson didn’t know it, but the raid was always meant to fail.”
I stared at him. “You sent those people to their deaths.”
“And I would do it again if it meant gaining Daxton’s trust.”
The part of me that had begun to thaw toward him froze solid again. “Why are you even here, Knox?” I said coldly. “Can’t the Blackcoats break everyone out of Elsewhere without your help?”
He leveled his stare at me. “The Blackcoats aren’t breaking anyone out, Kitty.”
I frowned. “Then what—”
“The Blackcoats are breaking in.”
He straightened and took a step toward us, leaning in as if he were afraid of someone else hearing. A pair of guards stood at the far edge of the circular platform, barely visible beyond the door, but when one of them glanced over, I recognized his face from the Blackcoat meeting. Maybe they didn’t know who Knox was, but Knox knew who they were.
“We’re going to war, Kitty. A real war this time, not just random bombings and guerilla tactics under the cover of night. If we can gain control of Elsewhere, we have a real shot. We’ll have resources, weapons, an entire army at our disposal—”
“You’re not going to make the prisoners fight, are you?” I said, horrified.
“No one will be forced,” he said. “But this is their chance at a normal life. Enough of them will pick up a weapon, and we’ll have the numbers we’ll need to give the Blackcoats the edge.”
I hesitated. “Not everyone’s in here for stealing food or not paying taxes. Some of them—”
“We’ll sort that out when we get there,” said Knox. “For now, we need numbers, and we need weapons. This place has both, and it’s designed to keep prisoners in, not upstanding citizens out. This is our best shot, and I’m here to make sure it happens.”
I pressed my lips together. “Do you have the armory codes?”
He grimaced, not looking surprised that I knew about those. “Not yet. We’re working on it.”
“Do you know where they are, at least?”
“In Mercer’s office, corner drawer. It’s in a black folder. The codes are changed every three days, which is why we’ve cut it close.”
“I know what you’re thinking, Kitty, and you’re not going to do it,” said Benjy, running his fingers through my hair. “You can’t risk it, not when we’re this close.”
“I don’t have a choice,” I said. “If Knox can’t get them—”
“Then you’ll have no chance, either,” he said. “For once in your life, would you please listen to me?”
Knox cleared his throat. “Benjy has a point. The Mercers respect me. They’ve given me free run of the house, and if I’m caught lurking around at night, they won’t question it. You, on the other hand—you might be a Hart, but I can only protect you so much. We’re going to lose enough people during the war. I’m not throwing anyone away unnecessarily.”
“How many—” I swallowed hard. “Do we really have a shot? Elsewhere against the rest of the country?”
“Anything I tell you right now would be a guess. Daxton might have reserves I’m unaware of. The armories might have been cleared out. We have no way of knowing for sure.”
He and Benjy exchanged a look, and Benjy’s grip on my shoulders tightened.
“What?” I said, glancing back and forth between them. “Don’t tell me there’s more.”
“We might have one way to avoid a bloodbath,” said Knox. “It’s not a guarantee, but as you so astutely pointed out, it’s our best shot of overthrowing Daxton as peacefully as possible.”
I opened and shut my mouth. The file on Daxton—the one that had gotten me arrested and Benjy supposedly killed in the first place. “You haven’t found it yet.”
“You know we haven’t,” said Knox. “You were right, Kitty. If we can get our hands on it and prove Daxton isn’t the real Prime Minister, we could strip him of his support. The army, the navy, the generals, the Ministers of the Union, everyday citizens—if they know he isn’t who they think he is, they’ll rebel right along with us. He’ll be arrested in a matter of hours.”
“And Greyson will be Prime Minister,” I said. “No.”
Knox reached for me, and I slapped his hand away. He might not have killed Benjy, but he’d still put both of us through this. “You’re willing to get countless people killed just so Greyson won’t have to be Prime Minister for a few days, until we get it all settled?”
“The Blackcoats will kill him,” I said. Knox opened his mouth, but I cut him off before he could speak. “You can pretend all you want that the Blackcoats will leave him alone, but he isn’t one of them. He’s a Hart. They’ll string him up right alongside Daxton, and I’m not going to let that happen.”
“Neither will I.”
“Then prove it. Get Greyson to safety—bring him here so I know for sure you’re telling the truth—and then I’ll tell you where the file is.”
Knox’s frown deepened, and suddenly he looked much older than he really was. “You’re going to get people killed.”
“So are you, so I guess that makes us even.”
He huffed. “Fine. I will bring Greyson here once we’ve overtaken Elsewhere, and then you’ll be able to see for yourself that he’s safe. The instant he arrives, you tell me where the file is. Deal?”
“And you’re going to tell me what was in mine, too.”
A low growl escaped him, but at last he nodded shortly. “Deal.”
The three of us spent the next few hours on the guard tower as Benjy and I curled up against the wall, keeping each other warm as we talked about nothing and everything. Knox pretended not to listen, but I could see the way his head tilted toward us whenever we whispered to each other, and part of me wondered if what Hannah had said back in Mercer Manor was true—if Knox really did love me the way she claimed.
It was ridiculous. I was a pawn to him in a game he was determined to win, and he’d proven time and time again that he was willing to sacrifice me for the greater good he claimed to believe in. At this point I wasn’t sure he was capable of loving anything more than that, and even if he did, I wasn’t it. Benjy was my home. He was my other half, and that was the love I was fighting for. That was the love I believed in.
At last the sun began to dip below the horizon, and it was time to go. Benjy was in the section beside ours—the one Noelle had grown up in before she’d come to Section X. “It’s safer there,” said Knox as I hugged Benjy one last time. “The guards are gentler, and the section leaders don’t allow violence in front of the children.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Benjy, nuzzling the top of my head. “Take care of yourself, all right? Don’t do anything crazy. I can’t lose you again.”
“You won’t,” I said fiercely, and I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him. His lips were chapped, but it was the same familiar kiss I would have crossed mountains to find. He hadn’t been Masked.
One of the guards led Benjy down the stairs first, and as soon as he was out of sight, something inside me began to ache. I told myself again and again that this wouldn’t be the last time we would be together, but I wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.
“If he has so much as a scratch on him next time I see him, I’ll slit your throat,” I said to Knox as we descended the steps a minute later, once Benjy and the guard had disappeared beyond the fence into the other section.
“I know,” he said. “Come on, we’ll stop by your bunkhouse before we go back to the Mercers’. They’re probably wondering where we are by now.”
I yanked my arm from his grip. “I know the way. I’ll be back in time for dinner.”
“Kitty—”
“We’re not friends,” I said, walking backward and putting several feet between us. “After what you put me and Benjy through, we’re never going to be friends again. So you might as well stop pretending, all right? There’s no point anymore.”
I turned and hurried away, shoving my hands in my pockets and ducking my head. Knox didn’t call after me, and by the time I worked up enough courage to look over my shoulder, he was gone.
I tried not to think about him as I wound through the gray, slushy streets of Elsewhere, instead focusing on the fact that Benjy was alive. Every time I remembered the warmth of his arms around me, my heart skipped a beat, and it was all I could do to hold it together. There was still a chance. We still had a chance at the future we wanted together, and this time I wasn’t going to let anyone, especially Knox Creed, steal it from us.
When I reached the dining hall, I turned a corner to cut through an alleyway I remembered from the night before. Instead I nearly tripped on a girl curled up against the wall, sobbing.
“I’m sorry, I—” I began, but as soon as she looked up, I dropped to my knees beside her. “Noelle? What’s wrong?”
Her dark hair hung in a limp curtain, hiding her features, and I brushed it back so I could see her face. Her cheeks were red and streaked with tears, and her entire body shuddered with sobs as she forced herself to speak. “It—it’s Elliott,” she cried. “He—he wasn’t at the fence today. I think—I think—”
I hugged her thin shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m sure he’s fine. His schedule probably got shifted around or—something. Maybe there was an incident, and he didn’t have time to meet you.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand—he never misses a day. Ever. Something happened to him. I know it.”
“But he’s a guard. No one’s going to hurt him.”
Another choked sob escaped her. “Sometimes, if the guards are caught doing really horrible things—sometimes they—they—”
“Would Elliott do anything really horrible?” I said gently.
She sniffed and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. “No. I don’t know. He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met.”
“Then I’m sure he’s fine,” I said. But that only made her break down all over again, her body trembling as she hid her face in her bare hands.
I inched closer, pressing my side against hers for warmth and running my fingers through her hair, trying over and over again to reassure her. But the more I spoke, the harder she cried, until finally she gasped, “How do you know it’ll be okay? You’re here, just like the rest of us. You don’t know anything for sure.”
I bit my lip. She was right, but at least when I was wrong, that meant my nightmares hadn’t completely come true yet. “I do know we aren’t nearly as alone here as they want us to think,” I said quietly. “There are people out there—lots of people, powerful people—who know what we go through. They want to help, and they’re going to. You just have to hang in there and trust that nothing’s going to happen to Elliott.”
“There are?” She sniffed again and finally looked at me. Her face was blotchy and her eyes swollen, but at least she had stopped crying for a second. Seizing the opportunity, I nodded.
“Out there, everyone thinks Elsewhere is some sort of—” I hesitated. I knew what I’d thought Elsewhere was before Daxton had brought me here to hunt, but no one had ever really talked about it. It was a mythical, far-off place we’d never see, if we were lucky and behaved ourselves—but at the same time, it had been a constant threat hanging over our heads, ready to uproot us from our lives at any moment. “No one really knows what it is,” I admitted. “It’s just this—place. Some people think it’s somewhere warm, because they send the elderly here. Others think it’s...what it is, I guess. But no one really knows how horrible it is, not unless they’ve gone hunting. And even then—”
“Hunting?” she said. I silently cursed myself.
“Nothing—never mind,” I said quickly. Noelle was scared enough as it was. “There are people out there who know how bad it is, though, and they’ve told others. And people are rising up against the Prime Minister. They want to break us out of here—they’re going to really soon, so you just have to sit tight, okay?”
She looked at me dubiously, and I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t believe me, either. “Who?” she said. “No one cares about us.”
“Yes, they do,” I said firmly. “I care. I cared before I came here, and lots of other people do. Powerful people who can change things and help us—really help us.” I lowered my voice. “Have you ever heard of the Blackcoats?”
“The Blackcoats?” Her frown deepened. “What are those?”
“They’re a group of people who are going to get us out of here,” I said. “I’m here because of them—because I’m going to help them. And I’m going to help you, too, Noelle. I prom—”
“Lila,” said a sharp voice over my shoulder. I jerked around. Scotia stood only a couple feet away, close enough to hear everything we’d just said. My face grew hot.
“Hasn’t anyone ever told you that eavesdropping is rude?” I snapped.
She ignored me. “I need to speak with Noelle,” she said, looking past me and staring directly at her instead. “Go back to Mercer Manor, Lila, and enjoy your dinner.”
“I—” I began, but Scotia grabbed me by the arms and hauled me to my feet, her fingers digging into bruises. I yelped.
“That wasn’t a request,” she said. “Go.”
Noelle sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “It’s okay, Lila,” she said, offering me a faint smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, and I glared at Scotia. This wasn’t over. She barely looked at me as she helped Noelle to her feet—much more gently than she’d been with me, I noticed—and led her deeper into the back alleys.
I watched them until they disappeared around a corner, and with a huff, I shoved my hands in my pockets and returned to the street. The bunkhouse wasn’t far, but the bottom of my jumpsuit was soaked with dirty snow, and the biting wind felt worse than usual. I hated myself for joining the Mercers, as necessary as it was, but I couldn’t deny it would be much more comfortable.
That wouldn’t fix the problem for the rest of the prisoners, though. The only thing that could possibly help them was finding those armory codes and giving the Blackcoats a fighting chance to overtake Elsewhere. Knox and Benjy were right—if I was caught searching for them, I’d be dead in seconds, and this time my face wouldn’t help me, not when everyone thought Lila was leading the rebellion in the first place. But that only meant I couldn’t get caught.
And in order to break into the filing cabinets and steal the codes, I needed my necklace. The chances of Scotia handing it over if I asked politely were slim, even if I explained myself, and I didn’t trust her enough to do that anyway. Not after all she’d done. She might have been working for the Blackcoats, bu
t that didn’t mean she wasn’t willing to rat me out in a second if it meant distracting the Mercers long enough to further her own agenda. Ratting me out meant potentially ratting out Knox and Benjy, too, and I couldn’t let that happen.
So that was it. I had to find the codes myself. If Knox could have done it, he would have already, and Scotia herself had admitted she stood no chance.
I had to steal back my necklace.
I slipped into the bunkhouse, relieved to see it abandoned. Everyone must have been at the dining hall already. The napkin Benjy had drawn was where I’d left it, underneath the thin mattress, and I slipped it into my coat pocket, where it stood the best chance of staying dry.
After I ducked into the bathroom to make sure it was empty, I stood in front of the curtain that separated Scotia’s room from the rest of us. My heart hammered, but I had no idea when she’d be back, and I didn’t have any time to waste. Now or never.
The curtain was heavier than I expected, and to my surprise, her room was almost warm. It was small—barely big enough for a bed, a tiny desk and chair, and a nightstand—but it was a palace compared to the rest of the bunkhouse.
In the group home, we had a strict no-snooping policy. Anyone caught looking through someone else’s stuff voided their right to privacy, making their possessions fair game for the rest of us, and I wasn’t stupid enough to give up what little I had. And even though I’d had no trouble going through Daxton and Lila’s things, being in here without Scotia made my skin prickle with the wrongness of it.
But I was on a mission. I hadn’t spotted the necklace on Scotia in the alleyway, and it could have easily been hiding underneath her jumpsuit. I silently prayed it was around here somewhere instead.
I started with the single thin drawer on the desk. It was empty, save for some scraps of paper with scribbles I couldn’t read. I found a handful of pencils, all worn down to the nubs, but there was nothing else there. I turned to the nightstand.