“I wish I could go back to Viridia, to be with my sister,” Mirror said. She’d told Serina once her sister was her mirror image, down to her many freckles. It was how she’d earned her name. “But that’s what got me put here to begin with. I ran away to be with her and her new husband, thought I could be her maid or something, but he turned me in because my father had not given me leave to go. The authorities didn’t even bother sending me home. They just sent me here. If I go back now, he’ll just do it again.”

“No, he won’t,” Serina replied. “The Heir will put an end to all of that. You’ll be able to choose where you want to go, what you want to do.”

“I’m voting to go to Azura,” Mirror said, her voice hardening. “Why would the Heir actually change the laws? Once he has what he wants, his promises are worth nothing.”

“I don’t believe that,” Serina said firmly. But deep in her heart, she had her own doubts. Still, she trusted Nomi. And she would never choose to leave her family behind.

By the time they reached the amphitheater, most of the women had already gathered. Val waited on the dais with Malachi and Nomi.

Serina studied the crowd as she headed down to meet them. The women weren’t divided by crew anymore. Cliff and Ember sat together where Serina and the other Cave freshies had, but a couple of girls from the Beach sat next to them. Maris and Helena sat with them too. Helena was from Jungle Camp. Everyone called her Serpent; even Serina had heard the story of how she’d caught and cooked a large snake when Jungle Camp had gone weeks without rations.

Val said both Maris and Helena were doing well with firearms training. Serina wondered if they imagined their targets as the men who’d forced them apart.

When Serina reached the dais and turned to face her audience, her pulse leapt. She hadn’t been to the amphitheater since the morning after the uprising.

Everything suddenly felt too familiar, and the memories, the horrors, rose to choke her.

She wiped her sweaty hands on her pants. Fought with every breath not to look behind her at the guard’s booth. There were no men training firearms at her back. The Commander wasn’t standing on the edge of the balcony, preparing to throw a box of spiders or bricks to the ground. This was a safe place now.

This is our place.

And Nomi was standing with her. Nomi, and Val, and Malachi. They stood together. Serina held up her hands. “Quiet, please,” she said. Voices faded to silence. Everyone turned to her.

Val sidled a little closer and Serina channeled his support as she addressed the crowd of nearly a hundred fifty women.