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Chapters (49)
  1. COVER
  2. DEDICATION
  3. MAP
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  47. DISCOVER MORE
  48. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  49. PRAISE FOR

Sudden tears pricked Nomi’s eyes. An odd feeling came over her, a strange twinge near her heart. “Thank you. I’m supposed to be helping you fix all of this. I don’t know why you want to help me.”

He gave her a long look. “You don’t?”

Heat rose to her cheeks. She couldn’t answer.

FIFTEEN

SERINA

SERINA COULDN’T SLEEP, so she spent the night standing watch outside Hotel Misery, with Ember’s silent presence and the quiet crackle of the torch they’d driven into the ground. All around the building, other women waited. Watched.

How could you murder them?

The argument replayed in Serina’s mind, again and again.

Your whole plan was to murder them. Or is it not murder if they starve to death?

Anika hadn’t backed down from her decision, not for a split second. Serina had watched closely, and the girl had never once faltered.

“These guards were a risk,” Anika had said when Serina confronted her. “They were eating our food; they were drawing more and more of our fighters to keep watch over their worthless lives. If Nero and Diego had gotten the chance to let them loose, they would have surely killed more of us, maybe found a way to signal the boat. They were a threat. And your plan was for them to die anyway. At least they went fast at my hands. I don’t think they would have preferred to starve.”

“No,” Serina had argued, her heart pounding in her temples. “I was giving them a chance. Leaving them here on the island to fend for themselves is not the same thing as murder. I was giving them more than Commander Ricci ever gave us. And I was saving you.” She gestured to the women holding the firearms. “I was trying to save you from this moment, when you have to face the knowledge that you stared an unarmed man in the eyes and ended his life. This wasn’t a fight for survival. It was a calculation. It was murder.”

Anika put her hand on Serina’s shoulder, turning her so they met eye-to-eye. “I didn’t need you to save me from this. You needed me. This wasn’t a call you were ever going to make.” Her gaze flicked to Val. “And it needed to be made.”

She patted Serina’s shoulder. “We’ll take care of the bodies. If you want to use the prison as a trap for Nero and Diego, we can. Or we can close it down and regroup at the Hotel. Up to you.”

Serina had stood there as Anika asked her for the keys, as the women had unlocked the cells and dragged the bodies of the guards into the hall. She’d stood in silence when Mirror said quietly, in passing, “These were not good men, Serina.”

When Val and Serina were alone, she’d turned to him.