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A hospital rooest hospital I’d ever seen If anything, it looked like a bedrooe bedrooold trim, but still a bedroom

"Ah, I see you’re finally awake"

My heart pounded, and the frequency of the beeping increased Out of the corner ofa drink in his hand I gritted h that tube, it clouded my mind and made my vision blurry, but no a away from the club

"You killed Tabs" It was hard to speak My voice sounded deeper and hoarse, and I tried to clear my throat without success

"No, I didn’t," said Daxton, walking around the bed until I could see hiain I toldheld hwouldn’t help "Why?"

"Because she stuck her nose where it didn’t belong"

He took a sip from his cup "Oh, don’t look at me like that She was nobody"

"She was my friend" He was lucky I couldn’t move, else my hands would have been wrapped around his throat, treason or not "And she was a IV"

"She was a prostitute," said Daxton, but that was a load of bull Prostitutes on the streets, desperate to make their family a little extra ht But in the clubs, especially clubs frequented by government officials and the ministers themselves-- "Would you like to see your new mark?"

I didn’t answer This was my fault Tabs had been killed because she’d seenso from his pocket, Daxton held a small screen a foot away fro cold between the pillow and my skin It must have been a camera, because the back of my neck appeared on the screen, and I could clearly see the new letters

VII, ainst my pale skin I looked away It wasn’t worth Tabs’s life

Daxton sighed "It is a tragedy, what happened to your friend, and because it hurt you, I aers that came with her profession, and she chose to do it anyway You cannot bla the law"

I closed my eyes and sed the lump in ht Tabs knew the risks We all knew stepping one toe out of line couldher perfectly normal IV, Tabs had turned to prostitution I’d tried to steal that orange Benjy had offered to run aith ed bullets froht up with us, and there was nothing I could do about it Feeling sorry forher back, and if she’d knoas happening, that I was getting a VII-- She would’ve s it all because of her, especially when nothing I did would change what had happened

People died and were sent Elsewhere all the time It hurt like hell when it happened close to home, but what made Tabs any different fro the law? I hadn’t cried for theht twice about the articles Benjy read to one the next, and they were the ones who’d risked it

It was different when it was my friend, but at the same time it wasn’t Life still went on Daxton still ruled the country, and I was nobody At least noas a nobody with a VII

Tabs shouldn’t have opened that door And I shouldn’t have talked to her

A lock of ht my eye Instead of dirty blond, it was the color of wheat and blended in with the pillow

"What did you do to one, as well

"You wanted to be a VII," said Daxton as he switched the camera off "Did you think I would just hand it to you because you were pretty?"

No, of course not A snarl rose from the back of my throat, but when I let it out, it sounded more like a whimper than the roar I needed it to be "What did you do to ement, and now that it’s done, you have two choices

You can accept it, or you can join your friend"

"What are you talking about?"

He perched on the bed "I have also lost soers together

"My dear niece, Lila, was killed while on a skiing trip in thebeside me slowed "She did? But I didn’t hear about it on the news"

"The media does not know No one does"

I stared at him "I don’t understand"

He shifted on the bed until he was facing me "Do you knohy I picked you?"

"Picked me for what? To be your mistress?"

"My h "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"You--you bought me," I said, at a loss

"I did buy you, but not to be my mistress"

My mind raced What other reason did he have to spend thirty thousand gold pieces on h for me to smell the coffee on his breath and count the pores on his nose "We have searched a long tiive up hope When my officials told me someone with your unique features had been spotted, I had to come see you for myself And there you were

Perfect in every way that mattered" His smile was so cold I wanted to shiver "Did you know that eye color is the one thing we cannot change? Experiments have been done, of course, but ninety percent of those who attempt the alteration are instantly blinded The other ten percent go blind within a year"

I had no idea what he was talking about, so I stayed silent Daxton didn’t see ht about how much better your life would be if you were a Hart?"

Before I could answer--or spit in his face, because I was still deciding--the door on the other side of the roouards entered, followed by a woraphs and on television

Celia Hart, Daxton’s younger sister and Lila’s hter, Celia was stunning Her face, so perfect it ically altered, was set in a slared atshe meant me, I opened my mouth to answer--honestly, did she think I’d paralyzed myself on purpose?--but Daxton cutGod" She waved her hand, and her guards disappeared through the door "Who is she?"

"A nobody Some tramp I found in a club in the city," he said, and I hissed

"I’inity"

"And yet you still have it," he said "Hold your tongue, Kitty, or I’ll have it nu half as brave as I sounded "I have a right to knohat’s going on"

"Your rights extend as far as I let them" Daxton opened a drawer in the bedside table and pulled out a syringe "This "

Celia snatched it away before he could uncap it "Don’t you dare"