He pushes hair off her forehead. “Then we’ll come up with a new plan.”

Lynell absentmindedly pushes at her cuticles. “I started trusting him,” she says, her voice a whisper. “Despite everything, before I even knew Zach was my cousin, I started trusting him. How crazy does that make me?”

He smirks and she can see the amusement in his eyes as he looks down at her. “I’d say only a little crazy.”

She flicks his arm and he laughs, catching her hand in his.

“Not crazy at all, actually. He’s got that personable way about him. I didn’t know who he was when we first met either, but I instantly liked him. He was charming, seemed trustworthy. He would act cagey any time I brought up his family or childhood, and I knew he was hiding something. It wasn’t until someone recognized him at a coffee shop that I found out who he was.”

Lynell imagines Daniel, the man who fought with the rebels, standing next to his new friend while someone fawns over meeting the Zachary Elysian. “Were you pissed?” she asks.

Daniel shakes his head. “I already knew at that point that he was pro-Registration. We had a few arguments about it but mostly just avoided the topic. Except this one time I went on a bit of a rant about Eric Elysian and how he doesn’t have a soul and Zach just laughed and said, ‘I imagine it’s hard to have a soul when you see firsthand how dark a soul can get.’” Daniel starts running his fingers through Lynell’s hair while he talks. His eyes train forward, probably getting lost in the memories. “After I found out who he was, I apologized for calling his father evil. H told me I was right, and he was glad I was honest with him.”

“You told him that you hate his family and all they stand for?”

“Of course,” Daniel says. “That’s when our pranks started. He supports the Registration, but he doesn’t like his father. So, we started causing trouble. He got to act out his daddy issues and I got to relive my rebel days. It worked, somehow.”

“The rebel and the Registration kid. It’s like Romeo and Juliet,” Lynell says.

Daniel laughs. “Except Zach isn’t the Elysian I’m in love with.”

Lynell looks away from Daniel and mutters, more to herself than him, “And he’s not the one who's going to die at the end of the play.”

“Hey.” Daniel shifts so he can lean down and press a kiss to her forehead. “I’m not letting them hurt you again.”

“You may not be able to prevent it.”

“Well, I sure as hell will do everything in my power to try.” He sighs and combs her hair with his fingers. “If he doesn’t reply, then we’ll come up with a new plan. But first, you need to outlive the fourteen days of the Registration.”

“Five more,” she says.

He nods. “Five more.”

“I never told you why I was Registered,” she says.