It was nearly dawn by the time we were escorted back to our rooms with a stern warning from Augusta that none of us were to leave Somerset. My time to find Benjy before his seventeenth birthday was dwindling, and without a way out, I would have no chance at all.
Exhausted, I followed Knox and the guards up to the fourth floor, but it wasn’t until we’d reached Knox’s room that I tried to work up the courage to speak. Instead of heading toward Lila’s suite, I stood in front of him with my arms folded and the weight of a sleepless night on my shoulders. How was I supposed to say this in front of the guards?
Knox picked up on my uncertainty and gestured for them to leave us. Once they were gone, he held open his door for me, and I shook my head. I wasn’t going anywhere private with him.
“Who are the Blackcoats?” I said softly. Knox leaned down to answer, and his lips brushed against my ear.
“The people who bombed the ministries last night,” he said. “Why are we whispering?”
He was determined to make this difficult, and I was too tired to play games. “Was—I—involved with them?”
Knox straightened, his eyes narrowing as he studied me. “Why do you ask?”
“Because they wanted the same things I talked about.”
Several seconds passed, and I dug my toes into the carpet, wondering if I should walk away now before he lied and told me no. It was too much of a coincidence: Lila dying, me replacing her, the bombings—they had to be connected.
“Those are the same things every rebellion has been about for the past seventy-one years,” said Knox at last.
“Groups have tried again and again to take down the Harts, but you’ve seen how well that worked out.”
“Except when Daxton’s wife and son died,” I blurted, remembering the conversation I’d had with Nina the day I’d received my III. She hadn’t outright told me they’d been killed by rebels, but she might as well have.
Knox paused, his gaze unfocused. “Jameson and Yvonne died in a car accident. There was no rebel involvement.”
“Are you sure?” I said.
“Positive. This is the first time the Blackcoats have done any sort of real damage, which is exactly why Augusta’s spooked.”
Maybe Nina had been wrong after all, but the way he hesitated only confused me more. “I’ve heard rumors—”
“Rumors are rumors because no one can back them up,” he said shortly. “I’ve explained what happened. If you’re going to push it, I’m not sticking around.”
“You don’t want to talk about them, fine,” I said. “I get it. I’ve lost people, too. But you will answer my question.”
“I already told you—”
“Not that one. The one before. Was I or was I not involved with the Blackcoats?”
Knox eyed me for a long moment, as if deciding whether or not I was worth the truth. “She got involved in that sort of thing about a year ago, and despite what Daxton wants you to think, she didn’t trust me. I don’t think she trusted anyone, not even her mother. The first time I heard the speeches was when I saw them with you.”
I studied him, searching for any signs that he was lying.
His expression was maddeningly blank. “Okay. Thanks,”
I said. If I let him know I suspected him, he would only try that much harder to hide the truth.
“You’re welcome.” Knox started to enter his room, and I hesitated in the doorway, another question on the tip of my tongue. He stopped, his eyebrows raised. “Was there something else?”
I cleared my throat. “Have you ever been Elsewhere?”
Something changed in his expression, something so tiny that it was gone before I could figure out what it was. “Yes. My father and I take a semiannual trip together. He considers it a bonding experience.”
Bonding over hunting innocent people. What could possibly bring a father and son closer together? And the way he said it, as if it were no big deal—as if all the fathers and sons in the ruling class did it. For all I knew, they did.
“Okay.” I turned away and headed down the hall, and when I heard footsteps behind me, I stopped.
“Lila,” he said, and I refused to look at him. It wasn’t his fault, but I was getting really, really sick of everyone calling me Lila. “I’m heading out to a club around ten tonight. Nothing fancy, but I figured you might get a kick out of it. Some of our friends will be there, and I’m sure they’d like to see you.”
Friends. Of course Lila had friends, and that would only mean more lying and desperate attempts to get my story straight. The last thing I wanted to do was to see more people who knew Lila well enough to be able to tell the difference between us.
However, it was exactly the opening I needed. A chance to leave this place and find Benjy before it was too late.
“Aren’t we on lockdown?” I said.
Knox shrugged. “That’s never stopped us before.”
If the clubs Lila frequented were anything like the one where Daxton had found me, it would be crowded. That would give me a chance to break away and find Benjy, though if the club was close to Somerset, it would take a while to get back to the Heights.
It didn’t matter. Even if I had to walk there in heels, I would do it.
“All right. I’ll go,” I said.
“Knew you’d come around,” said Knox with a wink.
“See you at ten o’clock.”
Once I was inside my suite, I leaned against the closed door and took a deep, shaky breath. I had less than fifteen hours to not only come up with a way to find Benjy, but also to figure out how I was going to convince him that underneath Lila’s face, clothes, and VII, I was really Kitty Doe, and I wasn’t nearly as dead as I was supposed to be.
Chapter 9
The more I thought about it, the more impossible my plan felt. With my real face, it would have been easy to slip away and get lost in a crowd, but with Lila’s, all eyes would be on me. If by some miracle I did get away, someone else would surely spot me—and once I reached the Heights, I would stick out like a sore thumb. A VII had never had a reason to set foot in our run-down suburb before.
Even if I did make it to Benjy, what would happen after that? There were a million things only the two of us knew that would prove who I was, but where could I take him to guarantee Daxton wouldn’t get his hands on him?
I didn’t sleep well that morning, tossing and turning in the massive bed that could easily have held five people.