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"It will," said Knox, and he set his hand on ood job"

I started to reply, but Lila beat me to it "It wasn’t exactly hard"

He squeezedWhether or not half the country was convinced Lila was some kind of divine savior, she was still a Hart

Once we entered the suite, the guards shut the door behind us, and Lila stretched and cracked her back "I claied on the knob, but it didn’t budge "Please tell uards think I was asleep while Knox and I had sneaked out I slipped past her, and using the necklace Greyson had given me, I unlocked it for her As soon as it opened, she waltzed inside and closed the door behind her, and I heard the click of the lock once more

"Is she always like this?" I said when I returned to the living rooet some sleep while you can"

I curled up on the couch instead of heading into her second bedrooave up Knox sat nearby, staring into the crackling fire

Occasionally he stood and tended to it with one of the pokers, but we spent several hours in silence

Whatever happened, there was nothing I could do to stop it now I’d agreed to this, and I had no choice but to see it through I clung to the hope that everything would go according to plan and in the end, they would still need usta had to see that I was nize that this short life was better than the long one that waited for itive III, and because of that, I would stay But Lila wouldn’t, not for long Not when she still had a choice

However, Augusta had also lost all of her faiven the choice between a real Hart and a fake, I would lose every tiets this when it’s over?" I said to Knox, touchingave it toI was her, and--she should have it"

"Of course," he said It ell past lanced up at the air vent in the corner of the roo where Benjy was or that Greyson was all right, I couldn’t bring myself to leave

"Knox?" I said softly "I’m scared"

His jaw tensed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed "Yeah,to make the trade? What if she decides Lila isn’t worth it?"

"She will," he said "She loves LilaLila into being the face of her rebellion--"

"Lila really didn’t believe in what she was saying?" I said "Even after seeing what Elsewhere was really like?"

"She did," he said slowly "But when you live the life of a Hart, it’s hard to see past your own privilege After what happened to her father, Lila wanted to help herfor, though The idea is to stop the et more people killed"

"And you helped her fake her death?"

He rubbed his face wearily "I should have told Celia

I know that now, but Lila was so daone after her if I’d told her the truth"

"It’s not your fault," I said "Lila shouldn’t have run away in the first place"

"What should I have done instead?" said a voice behind me Dressed in paja Knox froured out--what else was I supposed to do?"

I sat up "You should have stayed If you didn’t want to talk to all those people, then you should have told your mother no Then no one would have wanted you dead, and you wouldn’t have had to run away"

"And you wouldn’t have my face," she said "And Greyson wouldn’t be kidnapped"

"Exactly"

She took a step closer to me, and behind her, Knox stood, but he made no move to pull her away "I lovevoice "Maybe I didn’t want to risk ht there were better ways to do it"

"How can you help theood are you holed up in a bunker?"

Her jaw tightened, and anyone in their right mind would’ve backed off with that wild look in her eyes, but I didn’t care anyood as dead anyway, and when that happened, I couldn’t think of anything worse than Lila running away again and abandoning all of the people who counted on her

"You’re no better than"Not everyone’s prepared to die for the greater good, all right? We can’t all be heroes I do my part down there, and no one has to know I had no idea they were going to have soh that, but that isn’t ht if everyone believed I was dead, it would have ht it would fuel the rebellion They know I’h--the entire world does, and they also know their leader abandoned them and kidnapped Greyson Some of them love him as oing to be happy about this?"

"Wait," I cut in,"Who do youspeeches and everything, and they didn’t tell you?"

"Didn’t tellat Knox over Lila’s shoulder He focused on the carpet, not ht it best if we kept you in the dark as much as possible," he said "We didn’t know you, and this isn’t so you shout from the rooftops"

Lila snorted and rubbed her cheeks with her sleeves

"What he’s trying to tell you is that my mother is the head of the Blackcoats, and he’s her first lieutenant"