Wow. Once again, my mouth drops open in shock. Such a shock, I can’t even speak. Awhore? I would not call myself a whore. Not even by the laziest standards, let alone the strictest ones. Ceela has been with many more boys than I have. Sure, Lucindy is still a virgin, but she’s a prude. Even Britley has been with two boys and she’s nearly as chaste.
Auntie snaps her fingers at me. “Stop wasting my time, Jasina. Report your progress.”
Report my… is she serious? She thinks she can just abuse me like this and I will… what? Submit and cower? I’m about to lay into her good—hundreds of colorful insults on the tip of my tongue—but instead, I take a breath and pull myself back under control.
Matron Bell is not a woman you mess with. She is mean and dangerous, but more importantly, she is powerful. I’ve always taken this power for granted, but only because I thought I waspart of the inner circle. We’re family, after all. We’re on the same side.
At least I thought we were.
This display today tells me something different. I am nothing to her. She might call me niece, but in her mind, I am nothing but a servant. I am not anything special. I am not some prophesized Chosen One who will save the day.
I am a whore, apparently. Well, I guess it’s better to know where I stand than to go on thinking the people I care for care back.
And actually, Auntie’s betrayal cancels out my own betrayal this afternoon with Finn Scott. He might lust after me, but at least he doesn’t look at me with disgust the way she is right now.
What did I do, though? What triggered this?
It must’ve been Finn. It’s the only possible explanation. I quickly run the meeting back through my head, but from Auntie’s point of view. I picture Finn and me at his table, leaning into each other like we were telling secrets. Like we were… intimate.
OK. I guess, if I were the one in charge of a political coup and my highest-placed spy was looking cozy with the enemy, I might jump to conclusions. I might even become paranoid.
But this meeting with Finn today was mostly innocent.
Wasn’t it?
I mean, I hadn’t planned on betraying the Rebellion. Not at all. Everything I did last night was to get more information. At least, it was until he started touching me. Then… well. I don’t have time to parse all those feelings right here in the moment, but it hadn’t even entered my mind to switch sides, that’s for sure.
“Jasina!”
I jump. “Yes.”
“Report!”
“Right.” I take a deep breath and talk. “I got in, but I got caught. That’s why we looked familiar back there.”
“You”—she scoffs, blinking her eyes at me like she’s astounded by my idiocy—“werecaught?”
“Yes.” I’m already on thin ice with her, now is not the time to lie. So I spill everything. “He was drunk, he mistook me for Clara for some reason, and then he… he… he kissed me.”
That’s as far as I’m willing to go. I will not tell her about how he had his fingers between my legs. And I’m definitely not telling her how it made me feel.
“So he came to his senses at the table today?”
“His senses?” I scowl. “What the hell does that mean?”
“You are no Clara, Jasina. She was the perfect Spark Maiden.” She smiles and places the back of her hand along my still-stinging cheek in a caring gesture that is at odds with the words spilling out of her mouth and the look of pity in her eyes. “You will never be a Spark Maiden, my dear. You haven’t got the breeding.”
My whole face screws up in confusion. “Well, you were a Maiden, and I’m your niece. So I’m failing to see?—”
“You’re a mongrel, Jasina. I was born in the Tower District. You are nothing but”—she crinkles her nose here. Like I smell bad—“a lowly, third-generation, down-city slut.”
Wow. For the second time in five minutes.
“What is the plan going forward?”
Well, now that I think about it, I actually do have a plan going forward—it’s to sabotage this entire Rebellion. Fuck these people. Who the hell does she think she is that she can just insult me like this and expect me to play good little spy for her? No. No way. I’m done.
But of course, I don’t say any of that to evil Auntie Bell. Instead, I start a new ploy. I’m starting to like that word. “I think I can get inside that Looking Glass room tonight. I think he’sinterested in me. He told me to come back. That’s what we were talking about at the table.”
