I cross my arms tightly over my chest.
“You’re mad at me and yet you have no right to be.” I feel his fingers snake through my hair before he closes his fist and bunches up the strands. I wince as he pulls my head back and brings his face an inch from mine. “You betrayed me and I saved your ass again.”
“You saved my ass?” I spit, the sceptical tone thick in my voice.
He tightens his grip on my hair, pulling until it burns my scalp. “You think they weren’t going to kill you? One wrong answer and you’d be dead.”
“You should have let them kill me.” Tears well in my eyes again, as well as feeling thick and warm in my throat. “This society is sick and twisted and I don’t want any part of it.”
Kade crushes his mouth to mine, not caring it’s moist with tears. His lips move roughly against mine, but I don’t kiss him back. I’m not in the mood for my Fortunate. I don’t care how I feel about him, so he claims his stolen kiss, taking pieces of my soul away with his perfect lips.
“Get used to it, Sweetheart,” he speaks against my mouth. “Because I’m not about to let you go.”
With a tug on my hair, he releases it and turns away from me. I drop my head into my hands as he leaves and shuts the door behind him. I’m not sure if I hear it lock or not. There’s too much in my brain to really hear the finer details of my surroundings. I fall back against the mattress and pull my knees into my chest. My heart is deflated… my blood running so thinly through my veins. I watched her die and I didn’t do a damn thing about it. Not the first time I’ve failed her, of course.
Beside me, Thirteen stumbles over a rogue floorboard and falls forward. I reach out, curling my fingers around the band of fabric that flows freely from the back of her dress and her weight tugs my arms. I fall forward too and we both crumple to the dusty floor.
That was the first time I ever tried to help her and even then, I was too scared to stick it out and help her up. She was rammed with the tail end of Soyer’s gun… and I didn’t do anything.
I take a deep inhale and release it slowly, then I hear a slap on the wood. I whip my head to Thirteen, but she’s no longer on her pedestal. She’s a tangle of limbs and fabric on the floor. The spectators chuckle and the sound twists my stomach. Instinctively, I step forward to help her, but Kade’s large hand snatches my wrist and he holds me in place. My pulse thrums hard against the veins in my wrist and I know he can feel it.
“Leave her,” he growls under his breath, squeezing me to the point of physical pain.
“I can’t just leave—”
He grabs a fistful of my hair and subtly squeezes until my scalp burns. I wince, inhaling sharply. Thankfully, nobody is looking at us. They eagerly watch Thirteen as the Fortunate that stood behind her slaps her hard across the face. The sound reverberates around my skull and makes my chest ache.
Again. I did nothing. For the second time.
Hot tears spill out and burn down my face. I inhale and it’s all over the place as my body rocks with sobs. Thirteen is dead… I killed her.
Chapter Thirteen
Kade
It was still morning and Kade felt exhausted. All he wanted to do was sleep, but there was no way he was going to be able to relax until nightfall. An Unfortunate tried to escape and his father is ‘under the weather,’ which means Kade had to overlook all decisions and head counts until his father is back on his feet. The thought made him smile.
Back in the private sitting room, things weren’t going so well. A dead Unfortunate with half a face missing wasn’t the easiest thing to stomach. Sadly, he was more upset about the murder of Thirteen than he was over his own father. Late at night, Kade wrapped Michael’s body in a sheet also filled with rocks and threw him into the lake. He sank immediately and Kade felt no remorse… that bugged him the most.
Kade remembered the first time he saw Thirteen, shaking on the pedestal as the Fortunates approached. She was terrified, like a tiny mouse in a cage with hungry cats. She was pretty, too. Her skin glowed and her curly hair was alive and bouncy—the perfect picture of innocence, really. Compared to her, Nine looked mischievous. Her violet eyes seemingly more playful than Thirteen’s frightened clear blues.
What good was that observation now? Thirteen was dead, her innocence gone along with her blue eyes and curly hair.
“Can we continue this conversation without the dead girl on the floor?” Kade asked, running his hands over his face. Was it possible to smell a dead body so soon, or was his brain making it up?
“You are just like Mother,” Vince said, uncrossing his legs. “Fine.”