“What about Thorne?” I ask. “What you did to him…is that unlike you?”
“I’ve never—” She cuts herself off. “I am sorry you witnessed my loss of composure. I allowed my emotions to get the better of me. I’m embarrassed, to be honest.”
The spot on my temple where Thorne whacked me throbs. “I apologize for, well, being totally like me and using a painful piece of your past against you. It was cruel.”
“I will gladly deal with fear-induced snarkiness if it means we live to see another day.” She rubs her face and looks through her fingers to stare ahead. “I feel compelled to tell you I knew about the party.”
“You did?”
She nods, palming the pill next to her and popping it dry. “Faith briefed me. It was Thorne she was with when we arrived, and found out he was throwing an autumnal party after they—” She gestures vaguely and pinches her face. “Delilah was going to send us both with dresses to change into, but I declined.”
I shift on the bed to face her. “Why?”
“Decisions made under pressure expose character. Unsurprisingly, you were smart, brave, and innovative.”
It’s embarrassing how much her praise warms every inch of my body. “And a traitor,” I reply, and she raises an eyebrow in silent question. “The murder of a region leader is treason. The murder of a region leader by another leader’s daughter is still treason but, like,unseemly.”
“The inter-region laws do not matter anymore,” Taylor dismisses. “Also, you didn’t kill Thorne. I did.”
“I helped. And more than that, I wanted you to. I killed Dusters. Strangers. People. What does that make me?”
“It makes you someone trying to survive.” Taylor rubs her eyes. “Survival is not pretty. It is full of tough choices. It can make doing the right thing feel wrong. But we are doing the right thing.”
“Are we?”
“I have to believe any time someone fights for their freedom and the freedom of others it is the right thing to do.” Taylor blinks and nuzzles deeper into her blanket. “You took a life—lives—and that is a burden you will always bear. It never gets easier. It should not get easier. But, you did it to save yourself and to save me, so that we may live on to fight for others. Treason or not, that makes you one of us, to me.”
“What does being ‘one of us’ entail? A new uniform? I’m not going to get a tattoo.”
She chuckles. “No, nothing like that. If we succeed, if the rebellion succeeds, I will make sure you are given the choice to stay or leave. Whatever you want to do or be when this is over, we can help you.”
“We? But Theia?—”
“Believes there is a place for everyone in the new country,” Taylor interrupts. “It is one of the reasons she is popular. She has no desire to annihilate the Upperclass like previous OrPro leaders. She wants to minimize casualties and bring people together.”
“But I’m not people. I’m different.”
“Your situation is extraordinary, Miss Piccolo, but there is a place for you, if you want it.”
This is quite the turnaround from the woman who found me a liability hours ago. “So, that’s why you kidnapped me, hmm? Because you thought I’d look dashing in olive green?”
Ever so faintly, Taylor smiles. “Something like that.”
“Would you want me to stay?” Helpfully, the pain pill Taylor took seems to be dulling her better senses, as the desperation in my voice must be plain.
“What I want doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“Oh.” She sounds genuinely surprised, which breaks my heart. “Then…yes.”
The corner of my mouth twitches, trying to keep hidden the deep thrill within my gut. “Are you growing fond of me, captor?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” she mumbles into her pillow.
“That’s not a no,” I singsong to her as I rise off the bed and pad over to our connected doorway. My hand is on the doorknob, about to pull it closed, when I hear a sleepy voice from behind me.
“Lucy?”
