“Can we please talk about this inside?” said Knox. “I don’t want anyone to overhear.”
“Did I not make myself clear when I said I didn’t want to be bothered?”
“This is important.”
“It’s always important.” She sighed. “What is it this time?”
“Greyson’s been kidnapped,” said Knox. “I need your help getting him back.”
The door opened immediately, and he stepped inside, motioning for me to follow. The room was bigger than I expected, with a dresser and a few colorful accents, and it felt much homier than the others we’d passed.
“God, Knox, you brought her? ”
I whirled around, fully prepared to tell Celia that I hadn’t exactly wanted to come, but my retort died on my lips when I saw who it was. Her blond hair was cropped to her shoulders, and she wore the kind of shabby clothes only IIs and IIIs were given, but her eyes were still the same ocean-blue as mine.
“Of course I brought her,” said Knox, and he made a vague gesture toward me. “This is Kitty. Kitty, this is—”
“I know who she is,” I said. “She’s Lila Hart.”
Chapter 16
I stood still as Lila circled me. She studied every detail in my face, my hands, even going so far as to make me show her the tattoo on my hip. When she brushed my hair from the back of my neck to see my VII, I tensed.
“They did a remarkable job,” she said. She sounded exactly like her mother.
“Celia was there to make sure they got every detail right,” said Knox. He leaned against the closed door, his arms folded across his chest. “Kitty gave a speech this afternoon in New York in front of thousands. No one suspected a thing.”
“That’s incredible,” said Lila, touching the three ridges on the back of my neck. “Where did they find her?”
“They found her at an auction,” I snapped. “And they lied in order to get her to do this.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. They lie about everything. You didn’t tell my mother I was here, did you, Knox?”
He shook his head, and I gaped at them. “Wait—Celia doesn’t know you’re alive?”
“Of course not.” Lila made a face. “She’s half the reason I did this. She made me give her speeches because she thought everyone would like me better than her. The attention was nice, and of course it’s terrible what some of those people go through, but it wasn’t worth my life, you know?”
The attention was nice? I stared at her, speechless. Everything I’d done, all the risks I’d taken to live up to her ghost, and she hadn’t even wanted to do it in the first place.
“But—” I sputtered. “How could you say those things to all those people and not believe it?”
“Of course I believe it,” she said. “I wouldn’t have gone along with it if I didn’t, you know? But it was all Mom’s idea. And if she wants to be prime minister, she can go ahead and give her speeches herself.”
“Her speeches?” I said. “But you’re the one—”
“They were all written by her,” said Lila, and she sighed, as if she’d explained this a dozen times before.
“You have to understand—I love my mother, you know?
But she ignored Grandmother’s warnings and insisted I stay and keep giving speeches. She said the rebellion was more important than any one life, even if it was mine.
So—I mean, what would you do? Stick around? No, thank you.”
If Celia blamed herself for her daughter’s death, no wonder she’d become so unhinged. “So, what?” I said, deeply unimpressed. “You decided to run away and let your own mother think you were dead?”
“Yes,” she said. “Because I’d rather be on the run for the rest of my life than be eaten by worms.”
“Augusta suggested a trip to Aspen,” said Knox. “My father tipped us off about her plans, and Lila’s bodyguard volunteered to take her place.”
“Madison,” said Lila fiercely. “Her name was Madison, and she was my friend.”
“She wasn’t your friend. She was your double, and she had a sworn duty to protect you.”
“Double?” I said. I wasn’t the first to be Masked as Lila?
But both of them ignored me. “There were better ways to do it,” spat Lila.
“None that kept you alive,” said Knox.
“I don’t care. You should have warned me, and we could have come up with something else.”
“There was nothing else,” said Knox. “Madison knew what she was sacrificing, and she was happy to do it.”
“No one should have had to die for me,” she said viciously.
“No, she shouldn’t have, but it was our only choice.
Your life was more important.”
“Only because you decided it was.”
“Stop it, both of you,” I said. “I’m sorry Madison died, and I’m sorry this had to happen, but none of it is going to help us find Greyson. And every second you spend arguing is a second we lose.”
Knox had the decency to look guilty, but all Lila did was glare at him and sit stiffly on the edge of the bed.
“Fine. What’s your master plan for getting him back?”
“We go public with everything that’s happened with you and Kitty,” said Knox. “We don’t know where Celia is, but you can bet she’s glued to the news for any sign of what’s going on with Daxton. So we use the media to send her a message, offer her a trade. You for Greyson.”
Lila’s mouth dropped open in unison with mine. “Are you kidding?” she said. “How on earth did you come up with that gem?”
“I’ve been thinking about it since Celia first told me her plans.” Knox glanced between us. “She’s only doing this because she thinks you’re dead.”
“Yeah, and we worked long and hard to convince everyone. Now you want to undo it?”
“Yes,” he said. “For Greyson’s sake. She kidnapped him because he is what Augusta values the most, and she thinks Augusta did the same to her. Once she understands that you’re alive, she won’t harm him. She isn’t a monster. Besides, Kitty’s proven to be more controllable than you were.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off, still focused on Lila. “There’s a chance Augusta will let you go once she has Greyson back.”