“That’s not possible.” I take a step backward, shuddering. I hug my arms around myself. “That’s not me.”

“No?”

I shake my head. Back up another step only to stumble over the chair I’d knocked over earlier but catching myself before I fall.

“No,” I say, not even convincing myself as he replays it, and I’m forced to watch it again.

“But I have eyes in my head. The evidence is right here in front of us,” he says finally.

We watch in silence, and when it’s over, he switches the monitors off and turns to me.

“I will mark you so you will never forget what you did. What you tried but failed to do. So that when anyone looks upon your face, they will know your shame, and they will turn their backs on you. You are a traitor. A liar. A Moreno.” My name is like a slap. I flinch. “You make me sick, Ivy.”

“I—”

“And my ink to mark your face, to deform you, is the sentence I decree upon you.”

14

Santiago

"How are you feeling?" Councilor Hildebrand peers up at me from beneath his spectacles.

"I live to see another day," I answer flatly.

He nods and then glances at the file before him. The three councilors of The Tribunal are seated behind the ornate desk on the dais in the courtroom reserved only for meetings such as these.

Since the explosion, I have come here once a month to meet with The Councilors, elders, and other remaining family members who lost someone that day. It was undoubtedly one of the worst attacks on a single IVI sector. We lost ten Sovereign Sons that day and twice as many elders.

Unlike a civilian case, a Society case never goes cold. We have all been assigned our own duties to further the investigation, and regardless of the slow progress, we reconvene here to discuss the findings on the same day every month. A process that will continue until The Tribunal deems the perpetrators have been found and punished accordingly.

Duty would dictate that I tell them I already know exactly who the perpetrator is, and he's lying in a hospital bed, too cowardly to face his crimes. But I decided long ago not to bring my suspicions forward unfounded. I didn't require The Tribunal's approval to punish those who I know in my bones bear the guilt of the blood that was shed that day.

I may never know how many Moreno family members partook in the scheme, but the only fair sentence is that which Eli has given me. An eye for an eye. And perhaps it is selfish, but I am not willing to relinquish control of their destruction, which is exactly what will happen if I were to bring their names forward.