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“Didn’t work out that way”

“No, it didn’t” He laughed bitterly “The Oligarchs have a rule about not fighting each other, but they do it all the time It feels like that’s all we ever do”

I chewed h don and into a sparser neighborhood before parking outside of a beat-up deli with a closed sign on the door

I didn’t get out Kaspar didn’t either He waited for me, patient as a mountain

“Alice wouldn’t have done it” I said the words and thought they’d come out with conviction, but instead I heard my own uncertainty, and hated myself for it

“You don’t know that Alice wasn’t stable”

“You barely talked to her How could you kno stable she was?”

“I learned about her after it happened I talked to people that worked in Maeve’s household Alice was troubled, came from trouble She was destined for violence”

“Nobody’s destined for what happened to her” I glared at hiood sense “Calling her troubled is just so her”

“I saved your life When I walked into that roo over you with a knife” He shoved his jacket aside and pulled out a blade It was long and sharp and see it above you and staring at you with tears rolling down her face She was going to do it”

“No, she wouldn’t have” But I stared at the knife: the blade was thick and sharp It was a tool for killing

“I’m sorry, Penny I’m sorry you liked her I think she liked you, too But she was too deep in Maeve’s pocket”

I looked at ain I felt so old and tired

“She was my friend I don’t have many”

He“I know that Better than most”

“Do you?”

“I’m alone I’ve always been alone All of us are We’re born into power and privilege but we’re kept apart and that breaks us, turns us into animal and de ti when I killed Alice, only sadness that you’d be ”

“Killing Maeve won’t fix anything”

“No, it won’t But it will show the world that nobody can touch you without repercussions” He moved his hand away

I wanted him to leave it there

It was sick I knerong He was a monster, a killer, a freak—he admitted it himself