I was pulled away before I had a chance to see Theo one last time.

  The nurse made quick work of resetting my dislocated fingers. She rubbed a cooling gel on both before wrapping them together. They now felt numb and pain free.

  She’d moved onto the usual reason I’d seen her the past few days. “How many times will you be doing this?” I asked, watching as the petite nurse pushed the end of the needle into my arm and the smoky black serum flowed into my body. It wasn’t as painful as the first time, almost as though I was growing used to it. A burning still moved through my veins with the serum, but it didn’t weaken me as it had before.

  This was my third trip to this little room with the same nurse. She didn’t say much, but she often hummed to herself. Today, her hair was messier than it usually was, and she looked as though she had been crying.

  “I’m not sure. Some only take five injections… others take weeks.” she said. Her voice was small and a pitch too high.

  We were way behind schedule. The plan had been to be in and out within two days, and so far I had yet to even see anyone else since the first day. Today was the first time I’d seen anyone outside of the nurse or a guard, and now I had no way of knowing what they would do with Theo. I believed Allard when they said Theo was safe, because he was needed, but would they sway the King of Kuros to help them instead of us?

  “Do you know why they’re doing this to us?”

  Her eyes quickly bounced up to mine before she violently shook her head.

  “They don’t tell you anything?” I probed. “They just order you to inject us with this stuff and that’s it?”

  She nodded.

  I sighed. I knew I only had another five minutes before she would press a button for the guard to return and I’d be taken away, but I had to learn something. All I’d found out both times I’d snuck out of my room was there were far more genetic kids here than we thought, maybe thousands, and there was only one way in… the way we entered. The ID cards seemed to only open doors assigned to that guard, so I was unable to check any other rooms, and I had no way of knowing where Theo or Vic’s rooms were.

  Behind the nurse was a wall of blinking lights. Most were red, but a few blinked green.

  “What is that?” I asked, pointing behind her.

  The nurse glanced over her shoulder. “The secured rooms. It’s so I know when and who is coming to see me.”

  I counted the dots, mapping it out in my head what I could remember, and realized one of the green lights was where my room was located. This screen showed every genetic kid’s room on this floor.

  The nurse moved to throw the needle out and was reaching for the button to call the guard, but I needed more time—more information. I noticed a little red band around her wrist, like a bracelet. “Where did you get that?” I motioned to the bracelet. “It’s pretty.”

  She quickly hid it with her other hand, and her face went bright pink. “It was a gift.”

  She reached for the button on the wall. I had to stop her.

  “From a boyfriend?”

  She paused then shook her head. “We’re not permitted relationships here. They sequester us just as much as they do you guys. I don’t know more than three other nurses or doctors here by name, and that’s taken years to learn. The guards aren’t permitted to speak to us, and they’re left to their own quarters as well. I don’t have… friends.”

  “Then who was it from?” I pressed.

  “A patient,” she admitted. “There was a girl who came in here a few years ago. She took longer than most to transition, and so I saw her every day for nearly a month. She was kind and spoke to me like I was one of them, not some monster doing terrible things to them.”

  The nurse looked to the bracelet, fiddling with it for a few moments.

  “What happened to her?” I asked.

  A tear trickled down the nurse’s cheek and slipped off her chin. She glanced up, her eyes glassy. “They changed her. I see her sometimes, but she doesn’t remember me, doesn’t even recognize my face.”

  Her mouth opened, almost as if she wanted to say more but knew she shouldn’t, and she clamped it shut again. I reached for her arm and was surprised when she didn’t pull away. “I’m sorry they did that to you.”

  She gave me a warm smile, wiping away the tears. Her eyes glanced to my arm still resting on her arm, before she slowly pulled it away, moving a step back. She pressed the button for the guard to come in, and I sat back down.

  We were silent for a moment. Before the guard came in, she said so quietly I nearly didn’t hear her, “Her name was Leah, and what they did to her can never be forgiven.”

  I recognized the name the minute she said it. The girl who this nurse had befriended was Em’s sister.

  I stepped an inch closer, keeping my voice low. “I plan to get revenge for every person they’ve hurt. Not just the kids, but people like you as well. We’ve all been used as pawns.”

  The nurse’s eyes widened as the door opened and a guard walked in. I kept my gaze on her before I reached the door. I glanced over my shoulder, my eyes catching the still blinking screen behind the nurse I tried to memorize. I took my time, pausing mid-step. “What is your name?” I asked, a simple question to give me a bit more time.

  The nurse glanced to the guard, unsure she should speak, then back at me. Fear flashed in her eyes for only a moment before I felt resolve take over and she smiled. “Jane.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Jane,” I said just as the door closed behind me.

  The guard pulled me through the hallway. It was empty, as it usually was, and now Jane’s information she’d given me made sense. They weren’t just keeping the kids apart; they were keeping everyone apart. They didn’t want anyone to know too much about what was going on. Someone might start to ask too many questions or form relationships that could affect their plans and strategy.

  Footsteps approached quickly behind us, causing the guard to glance back.

  “Grayson wants to see you,” a familiar voice said. I didn’t look back. “I’ll take her.”

  I kept my gaze ahead of me until the other guard had released my arm and gave a grunted reply. The new set of hands around my arm were gentler.

  “They have Theo,” I said quickly.

  “He’s fine.”

  “But they know about him, about who he is…” I quickly glanced up to Caspian, surprised to not find shock or any questions in his eyes.

  “So do we.”

  Something clenched in my chest. Jayla and her team were good, it was no surprise they would have found out about Theo once the truth was out, but for some reason the thought that he might have known before me pulled a twinge of jealousy in me. I wondered how much he knew, and if they planned to use it to their advantage just as Grayson planned to. We were quiet for a few moments. I knew I should trust Caspian, trust they would help keep Theo safe, but not knowing what was going on, even while still being mad at Theo for lying, terrified me.

  “Any news?” I asked finally, keeping my distance from Caspian in case any camerabots or other guards saw us.

  “They’ve cleared up the snow slide and have a train on its way here… should be arriving tonight. That’ll be our way out hopefully. We’ll take as many of the kids as we can, only far enough for the shuttles to pick them up, then head back for the rest,” Caspian whispered. “Em got our location out to Gustov, and we’ve informed them we can proceed with the original plan, but we need access to the kids.”

  “I think I have a way,” I said, thinking back to the way Jane looked when speaking about Leah. She cared about these kids, even if she wasn’t supposed to.

  “Good.” He stopped at a door, reaching in his pocket for an ID card to open the door.

  When I glanced up, I realized we were in the wrong location. “This isn’t my room.”

  “I know,” Caspian said. “You guys have five minutes.”

  The door opened, and Theo was waiting on the other side. I hesitated, but Cas pressed a hand to my back and whispered, “He deserves a chance to explain.”

  “How do you…?”

  “He told me,” Caspian said. “When I was assigned to bring him from Grayson’s office by Dr. Allard.” He gave me a knowing look, one that told me Dr. Allard saw through our plans, but for some reason he was helping us, not calling us out. It didn’t make sense.

  The door closed behind me. It was quiet, silent. The room was identical to mine. Stone walls, a single mattress on the ground, and dirty blankets thrown across the bed.

  “Are you okay?” Theo reached for my wrapped up hand.

  “I’m fine,” I tucked my hand under my arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. That lingering anger and hurt still clung, and I wasn’t ready to forgive him without getting the truth, all of it.

  Theo let out a breath, motioning for me to sit down, but I stood with my arms crossed in front of the door.

  “At first it was because I didn’t want to get caught,” Theo began. “I didn’t know you well enough to trust you wouldn’t tell anyone. And by the time I realized you would never have revealed my secret, it was too late. You knew me as one thing, and to tell you I was someone else would betray something I’d worked so hard to build.”

  “You didn’t trust me,” I argued.

  “I did. I still do. But I wanted to protect you. The truth about me is dangerous in the wrong hands, and I knew that if anyone thought you knew something, you could be used, tortured or worse, just as Grayson did today.” His voice was filled with concern and regret. What had happened today was what he’d been trying to avoid.

  “We were treated like shit no matter what, and we’re constantly being used as pawns in someone else’s game. At least this way I wouldn’t have felt like you were lying to me the entire time.”

  “I wasn’t, or I didn’t mean to.” Theo ran a hand through his hair to the back of his neck. He stood, the distance between us minimal, and the lure to touch him, feel him, was so strong even with the anger. “I wanted to protect you, and I thought if anyone knew and if my dad found out, he would come and take me back and I’d lose you. I didn’t want to risk it. Even in Eres, I couldn’t tell the others; my father would have just sent someone to get me and that would be it. I know him better than anyone, and he wouldn’t have helped unless we forced his hand, so I had to keep it secret, and I didn’t want to put that burden on you, too.”

  Something twisted in my stomach—jealousy. He had a family who cared about him, who would do anything to protect him. I had nothing, no one, and that fact had once brought us together, but now it made me feel so far away from him, so distant like I didn’t even know him.

  “I wouldn’t have told anyone,” I said softer this time. “I can withstand a little pain.”

  “But I can’t… I couldn’t bear to see what they did to you. And back in the DEZ, even the walls have ears. There was no right place or right time to tell you. I planned to in Eres, but Leanna convinced me not to.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if you knew and anything happened to us on this mission, then Grayson could use you as leverage. Even now it took Allard convincing Grayson that you knew nothing about any of this to get her to leave you alone. That little display was nothing compared to what she could have done if she truly thought you knew more.” Theo took another step forward, and he reached for my hand. I didn’t pull it back. “Everything I’ve done was to keep you safe. I was going to tell you, when the time was right, when we were both safe. I’m sorry.”

  I felt something burning inside of me, but it wasn’t anger anymore. It was shame. Shame I was blaming him for not telling me this, when I’d spent a year sneaking into Cytos for Vic and me, and I’d never told him. Hadn’t I done the same thing, never revealing anything to either of them, keeping what I was doing a secret so they’d be safe? It wasn’t the same. Theo keeping his entire life, the fact he had a family, from me was much different, but I understood the reason why—to protect the people you care about. Neither Vic nor Theo had judged me or gotten mad for not telling them, because they understood. When it comes to family, you’ll do anything, and that’s what Theo did.

  I squeezed my fingers into his, lacing them tighter and feeling Theo’s body relax just an inch. “How did Leanna know who you were?”

  “We’ve met before, when I was still in Kuros. I’m the only genetic child of my parents. When my father married my mother, he kept her Carbon identity a secret, but they still needed to produce a child. It was expected of her. So they had me created and very few knew the truth about me… Governor Wallace was one of them simply because, as you know, all genetic kids were made in Cytos, and they needed access to it discreetly.” Theo looked down at our hands. “She knew who I was at that banquet, and did a good job convincing my mom, who swore she saw me, that I was someone else. She’d protected me then, and I’m not even sure why—maybe she saw something in my eyes that night that said I didn’t want to be found. And she never forgot.”

  We were silent for a moment.

  “I’m sorry,” Theo whispered again.

  I shook my head. “You should have trusted me—but I understand,” I said. I was still hurt, and it’d take a while to go away, but we couldn’t change what happened. We could only move forward and make things right. He pulled me into his chest, and I wrapped my arms around his waist. My body melted into his, and the warmth of his body against mine was comforting; it felt like home. “I’m sorry about your brothers.”

  Theo tensed and I pulled back. His gaze dropped, and there was such sorrow in him. I wanted to take it all away.

  “I’ll see them again, in the afterlife. I’ll have my chance to tell them I’m sorry, to explain why I wasn’t there, why I couldn’t help save them.”

  I pressed a finger to his lips. “You don’t need to say anything. They already know.”

  He smiled, a sad smile, but not forced. “Thank you.” He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. I drew him in, tugging at his shoulders and wrapping my hand around the back of his neck. He moved his hand lower down my back until it grazed under my shirt and across the lining of my pants.

  A knock at the door caused us both to jump.

  Caspian opened it. “Let’s go,” he said, nodding to me. “Twenty-four hours. Be ready,” he said to Theo, who reluctantly let me go, but gave Caspian a sharp nod.

  The door closed behind me before I had a chance to say anything more, but it didn’t matter. We’d be out of here soon enough, then he could tell me everything. About his family, his brothers, his life. I couldn’t stop the feeling in my chest that I never had what he did, but it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t ask for his life any more than I had.

  “Have you found Vic yet?” I asked as we walked towards my room on the other side of Black Prison.

  Caspian nodded. “Yes, but she’s too heavily guarded, we can’t risk going there until the time is right.”

  We stopped at my door and Caspian opened it. “Can you get these doors open when the time comes?” Caspian nodded down the hall towards the other genetic kids’ doors. Thousands of them.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Then I guess we’ll see you soon.” Caspian winked just as the door closed.

  As I lie down on the mattress, I began planning how I’d get access to the genetic kids doors… or more importantly, how I’d convince Jane to open them.

  GUNNER

  “Get up.” Someone kicked at my feet hanging over the end of the mattress.

  I wiped my eyes groggily and took my time sitting up and stretching my arms over my head. I’d taken my shirt off before sliding under the blankets last night, and now every black mark on my body was exposed. I felt the guard staring at them.

  “What now?” I asked.

  In the bed across from me, Vic pulled her blankets up to her chin. I could see she was shaking even from here. I stood and threw on my shirt, keeping myself between Vic and the guard.

  “Governor wants to see you,” the guard said. His stance was firmer and more confident than the others. He wore a different uniform than the usual guards, this one a deep blue and stitched with silver. It clung tightly to him like a second skin, covering from his fingers to his toes and high up to his chin. That alone told me enough. He was a Carbon. Unlike all the other guards in this place, he wasn’t terrified of Vic or what they’d been doing to her. There were very few of them here, Carbons, and they were protected from the virus somehow just like Grayson. But him being there meant whatever reason Grayson had requested my presence was important.

  “Did she say why?” I asked.

  “Do you really think I would be privy to what the governor does?” the guard growled. “Just move.”

  I took my time making my way to the door, glancing over my shoulder to Vic with a reassuring smile. I’d told her I had a plan, and they wouldn’t do anything to harm her. And I intended on keeping my promise.

  The hallways were empty as always. I passed a petite nurse who kept her head down, but other than that we were alone. The boots of the guard clanked over the stone floors while my flimsy rubber-soled shoes hardly made a noise.

  When we reached double doors near the end of a hallway I hadn’t travelled down before, they swung open to reveal Governor Grayson.

  “Ah, nephew.” Her arm moved as though she would hug me for a moment before she thought better of it and wrapped her arm around her waist. “It seems you’re rather useful after all.”

  “And you’re still a crazed bitch. I guess neither of us disappoint.”

  Her jaw clenched together, and her lips formed a thin line. It was then I noticed the four guards still in the room with us and the man sitting at the back. Grayson hadn’t bothered to keep our familial relationship a secret to any of these men, which could only mean one thing.

  I glanced over her shoulder, tilting my head to the side at the man whose gaze had been fixed on me the moment I walked in. “Simon, I would presume?”