Heart aching, the words sucking slowly through the guilt and grief, Nomi told Serina about Renzo. About how she had written to him, asked him to be part of the plot. How she’d changed her mind at the last moment and begged him to run.

“I don’t know where he went or if he got away,” Nomi said, tightening her fingers around the rough stone until it hurt. “I used Luca’s address for the letter, but Asa met Renzo himself. Renzo might have told him his real name, where he really lives. I don’t know.”

“You involved Renzo?” Serina’s voice rose over the crash of the waves. “You—you asked him to kill the Superior?”

“No!”

Nomi explained exactly how the scheme was supposed to work, how Renzo was just supposed to pretend, just enough to throw suspicion onto Malachi. “He wanted to help, Serina. We were trying to save you.”

Serina’s mouth twisted into a horrified frown. “And now Asa is after him.”

Nomi’s tears fell. “I have to go back for him. I have to help him.”

Serina’s head dropped forward into her hands, as if it were suddenly too heavy to lift. “Yes, you do.”

“I’m sorry,” Nomi whispered, her nightmare blooming in her mind. What if Asa had already killed Renzo? Self-loathing poured through her. Her poor judgment had put both her sister and brother in danger. “I’m so sorry for everything. This is all my fault.”

FIVE

SERINA

RENZO IS IN danger. Her whole family was.

Serina could feel a familiar anger bubbling up, the same words she’d said to Nomi so many times before rising to her tongue: How could you be so careless?

But she didn’t say them, not this time. How could she lecture Nomi when it was for Serina’s own salvation Nomi had been fighting? And who else could Nomi have asked? Of course Renzo would have wanted to help. He was as much a rebel as Nomi.

As me.

“None of this is your fault,” Serina said, conviction coating every word. Her anger wasn’t for Nomi anyway. Not anymore. “It is Viridia’s fault. Sending women to their deaths for reading, for wanting to make their own choices… This country is sick, Nomi, rotten to its core.”

Her sister looked at her, the whites of her eyes gleaming in the moonlight. “But if I hadn’t stolen that book—”

“You should never have had to steal it. You should have always been allowed to read.”

“S-Serina…” Nomi stuttered, obviously shocked.

It was true that Serina hadn’t always supported her sister’s secret. But now she knew better.

“Now then,” Serina said, clearing her throat. “We need to figure out what to do about Renzo.”

“And our parents,” Nomi said. “As long as Asa is in power, they’re in danger.”