PAWN...CAPTIVE...QUEEN?
Kitty Doe is a Blackcoat rebel and a former captive with a deadly connection to the most powerful and dangerous man in the country, Prime Minister Daxton Hart. Forced to masquerade as Daxtonâs niece, Lila Hart, Kitty has helped the Blackcoats take back the prison known as Elsewhere. But Daxton has no intention of ceding his position of privilegeâor letting Kitty expose his own masquerade. Not in these United States, where each personâs rank means the difference between luxury and poverty, freedom and fear...and ultimately, between life and death.
To defeat the corrupt government, Kitty must expose Daxtonâs secret. Securing evidence will put others in jeopardy, including the boy sheâs loved forever and an ally she barely trusts. For months, Kittyâs survival has hinged on playing a part. Now she must discover who she truly wants to be, and whether the new world she and the rebels are striving to create has a place in it for her after all.
I Speak
I gazed out across the gathering crowd, my heart in my throat. The citizens of Elsewhere shifted restlessly, their red and orange jumpsuits bringing color to an otherwise gray winter landscape, and I could feel them growing impatient.
They werenât the only ones.
âKnox, everyoneâs waiting,â I said from my corner of the stage the Blackcoats had constructed over the past several days. It was made of whatever materials theyâd been able to salvage from the buildings that had been destroyed during the Battle of Elsewhere. Two weeks later, they were still pulling bodies from the wreckage.
Knox Creed, one of the leaders of the Blackcoat Rebellionâand my former fake fiancéâlooked up from his spot at the base of the stairs. His forehead was furrowed, and the annoyance on his face was unmistakable. âIâm aware, thank you,â he said. âThereâs only so much I can do to hurry things along.â
I hopped down the steps to join him and the other Blackcoats who lingered nearby. Heâd made no secret of his distaste for my less-than-obedient attitude, and though Iâd done my best to play by the rules after the battle ended, we were still on shaky ground. I wasnât so sure our friendship would ever be mended completely, no matter how the rebellion turned out. But right now, we both had more important things to worry about: he had a rebellion to lead, and I had a speech to give. As soon as the cameras were ready for me.
âBenjy said the test run this morning went fine,â I said. âIs there a problem now?â
âThereâs always a problem,â said Knox. Turning away from me, he spoke into a cuff on his wrist. âWhatâs the holdup?â
I waited in silence as he listened to the reply in his earpiece. He muttered what sounded like a curse, and it was my turn to frown. âHow much longer?â
âTheyâre having trouble breaking through the networkâs security,â he said. âSomething about encryptions and passcodes.â
In other words, nothing I could help with. Or Knox, for that matter. âWhy donât we just record the speech and broadcast it once theyâve found a way around it? Wouldnât that be easier?â
âIf it comes to that, we will, but we can give them a few more minutes.â As if realizing for the first time that I was standing next to him, he did a double take, his dark eyes looking me up and down. âDid you bathe?â
I blinked. âAre you joking? I spent an hour letting them do my hair and makeup.â
âWhat did they do, stare at you the entire time?â He ran his fingers through my hair in an attempt to doâsomething. I didnât know what. âYou look nothing like Lila anymore.â
Lila Hartâone of the founders of the Blackcoats, who also happened to be Prime Minister Daxton Hartâs niece. Four months ago, on my seventeenth birthday, Iâd been kidnapped and surgically transformed to look exactly like her in order to take her place. She had been Knoxâs real fiancée. I was only playing the part.
But now, after the dust had settled, the entire world knew there were two of us. Lila was working for Daxton, who had to be holding something over her. Whatever it was must have been a matter of life or death, because the Lila Hart I knew, while not particularly brave, would have never openly supported the government that had murdered her father and turned her mother into a fugitive rebel. Not like this. Not unless there was a gun to her headâor someone elseâs.