“Kayla,” he whispers my name softly. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine.” I blink away the moisture in my eyes.

Giving me a sympathetic look, he slowly moves my knife away from his throat and opens his arms.

I flinch back. “What are you doing?”

He frowns, like I’ve slapped him. “Giving you a hug.”

I back away, shaking my head. “Tell me how you know all this stuff about me? I mean we’d have to be close.”

He drops his arms, discouraged. “Because we’re, we used to be, friends.”

“Then why can’t I remember anything about you?” I ask. “Have you been gone for that long?”

He takes a cautious step toward me, like he’s approaching a skittish animal. “You can’t remember because you can’t remember a lot of things.”

I suddenly realize how nervous and jumpy I’m acting, like most of The Colony members I used to know. I calm myself, letting my head regain composure.

“Are you sure you want to hear this?” He asks. “Because, I feel like I have to warn you—the truth can be really ugly sometimes. You’ll learn horrible things about the people you knew—about yourself—that you might not want to know. But it’s your choice. Like I said before, everything’s your choice now.” He holds his hand out. “Either you can come with me, and I’ll take you to the truth. Or you can go out there and run away from it—this time I won’t stop you.” He folds his arms, looking confident, but his hand shakes, fearing my answer, fearing I’ll choose to run and leave him.

But I already know what I have to do. I’m not a coward and Monarch said he wanted me to find the truth, when the time was right. And this feels right. So as ugly and horrible as the truth might be, it’s still the truth—it’s still real.

I don’t take his hand, but step for the door. “Take me to the truth then.”

He nods, letting out a breath and opens the door. We go back to the crowded room, passing by Greyson on our way. His face has a purple lump, right where my fist slammed his cheek.

“What wrong with his face?” I trot down the stairs. “I didn’t do that, did I?”

He frowns. “It’s called a bruise and yeah, you did it. Sometimes what you do in here has different consequences from in The Colony, so you have to be more careful.”

I point at the white line tracing below his eye and down his cheek. “So is that a bruise?”

He traces his finger along it.  “No, that’s called my freedom.”

Chapter 18