by Aimee Carter
“She’s not going to die,” said Knox. “Augusta will make sure of it now that she’s the only one left. If we try to help, we’ll put all our lives at risk, including hers. None of this is your fault, but Lila—”
“You love her,” I said furiously. “Don’t tell me it’s all for show. You’re just going to leave her here?”
“This isn’t easy, all right?” he burst out. “If they’re able to make it out of here, they both know how. We’re no good to them dead, so let’s go.”
I stood my ground and turned toward Greyson instead. “Lila came back for you. She did this to help rescue you. And she did this because you, Knox, promised to help her escape again.”
“I promised Lila a lot of things,” said Knox. “Sometimes you make promises you can’t keep. I also promised you I’d watch your back and protect Benjy. That I can do. If we don’t leave now—”
“So leave,” I said. “Get out of here. Especially you, Benjy. But you can’t make me go with you.”
“I’m not going to let you march to your death again,” said Benjy fiercely, tightening his grip on me. “I won’t do it.”
“You have to.” I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a kiss. He refused to return it, but when I pulled away, I noticed some of the anger in his eyes had melted. “Knox, you said so yourself—Augusta won’t risk killing Lila, and she can’t tell the difference between us on sight.”
All three of them were silent. Frustrated, I wrenched my wrists away from Benjy. Caught off guard, he let go, and I raced toward the desk once more.
“Kitty!” protested Benjy, but I was already too far for him to catch me. My fingertips caught the edge of the opening, and using every ounce of strength I had left, I finally managed to lift myself into the vent. Benjy jumped on the desk and snatched my ankle, but I shook him off and crawled far enough inside that he couldn’t reach me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “If we leave without her, I’ll never forgive myself, and neither will any of you.”
“Please don’t do this,” said Benjy desperately, groping inside the vent. I stayed out of his reach. “Give us some time, and we’ll figure something out.”
“We don’t have any more time. I’ll be back soon. And in case something happens...” I hesitated. I didn’t want to tell him, but I needed something to distract Benjy, even if it was only for a moment. “Knox kissed me. Twice.”
Benjy’s hand froze. “You kissed my girlfriend?”
I heard Knox clear his throat. “This isn’t the time to discuss it, Benjy—”
“Technically they’re engaged,” said Greyson timidly, and Benjy growled.
Satisfied they would all have something to focus on other than following me, I started the agonizing crawl through the vent, and this time I didn’t bother setting the grate back into place. Either I’d return or I wouldn’t, and the secret of how I traveled around Somerset undetected wouldn’t matter anymore.
XIX
Crimson and White
Lila sat alone in her suite, her arms crossed and expression sour, and she didn’t look the least bit surprised to see me as I dropped from the vent.
“It’s about time. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting?” she said as she stood.
I blinked. “Uh, I’m sorry?”
“Whatever. What was that shot about?”
“You mean you don’t know?” I said. “It sounded like it was coming from your room.”
“Right outside,” she said, gesturing to the door. “It’s locked, so I can’t check and see.”
“We don’t need the door.” I pointed to the ceiling. “We can get out that way.”
Lila looked up at the open grate and made a face. “You’re joking, right? I’m not crawling through that. It’s tiny. I’ll get stuck.”
“Doesn’t me being Masked mean we have the same body now?” I said impatiently. “If I can do it, so can you. Unless you’d rather go out through the locked door and face whoever’s out there.”
Lila sighed dramatically. “So I’m just as stuck as I was before you got here. Great.”
“You’re not stuck. I told you, we’re the same size—”
Without warning, the door opened, and I jumped.
Augusta.
She stared at the pair of us, standing side by side and as identical as ever. Shutting the door calmly, she said, “I see you survived. Pity. It does explain why I am hearing reports of Celia running through the manor, though.”
She glanced between us, and I saw the confusion in her eyes. She didn’t know which of us was which.
“If you’re going to kill me,” said Lila, “you’re going to have to do a better job of it.”
My brow furrowed a fraction of an inch before I could control myself, but it didn’t matter. Augusta wasn’t looking at me anymore. She focused on Lila, who glared back defiantly.
“Is that so?” said Augusta, stepping toward her. She reached out, but Lila slapped her hand away.
“Don’t touch me,” snapped Lila in the same accent I spoke with when I wasn’t imitating her. “You had your chance, and you failed.”
“Not yet I haven’t,” said Augusta, advancing on Lila, who shuffled back. “With one word, I will have a dozen guards in here to arrest you.”
“Then do it,” she said viciously. “Arrest me, send me Elsewhere, do whatever you want. But when you do, the whole world’s going to know that Augusta Hart destroyed her entire family. Your son’s dead, your daughter wants to kill you, and you had a stranger Masked as your granddaughter, who wasn’t nearly as dead as you thought.” This time Lila was the one to step forward. “Tell me, Augusta, how does it feel to know you’ve let your family fall apart? How does it feel to know Greyson will never, ever love you because of the monster you really are? How does it feel to fail?”
My blood ran cold. For all her bravado, Lila was still a Hart, and she didn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.
“I haven’t failed, not yet,” said Augusta. “Guards!”
Two guards burst into the room, and I shrank back against the wall. Lila stepped forward and held out her wrists, as if she expected them to be cuffed, but I knew better. When the guards looked to Augusta for direction, she gestured toward me.
“Arrest her.”
They advanced, and I glanced up at the ceiling. I could try to escape through the vent, but the guards stood between me and the end table I’d always used before. I was trapped.
“What?” said Lila, stunned. “But I’m Kitty. Why are you arresting her?”
“I’m not the idiot you seem to think I am,” said Augusta. “That’s why.”
Bang.
The shot echoed through the room, and I ducked and covered my head as a second one followed. Lila screamed, and I peeked between my arms.
The guards slumped to the floor, and I saw the telltale blue plumes sticking out of their necks. Tranquilizers.
Knox stood in the doorway, and this time the gun he pointed at Augusta was real. “Let her go.”
Augusta pulled Lila against her, using her as a shield, and she wielded a glowing poker from the fire. “I don’t think so,” she said, holding the poker an inch from Lila’s chin. “Put down the gun and kick it over, Lennox, or I’ll burn her pretty eyes right out of her head. Then we won’t have any trouble telling these two apart, will we?”
Lila shrieked and struggled against her, but Augusta held on tighter. My heart pounded. She had to be bluffing. She wouldn’t hurt her own granddaughter like that, would she?
Knox hesitated. At last he slowly set his gun down and stepped away, holding up his hands in surrender. “All right. You win. Now let her go.”
Augusta shoved Lila away and crossed to the center of the room. Picking up the gun between her finger and thumb, she wrinkled her nose as if it were some
kind of dead animal. “So unpleasant, guns. Far too violent and bloody for my taste. Now, you’re going to leave, Lennox, and you’re not going to interfere again. If you do, I won’t bother sending you Elsewhere. I will have you and your entire family publicly executed for treason. Do you understand me?”
I touched the metal handle of my own gun underneath my sweater. Augusta didn’t know I had it, but Knox did. I watched him for any signs of what I should do, but he stared straight ahead and nodded. “Of course, Augusta. You win.”
Augusta smirked and started to turn. “Of course I win. I always do. Are you listening, Lila, or do you need another lesson in how to respect—”
A second poker sliced through the air, heading straight for Augusta’s chest. Lila cried out, and for one terrible second, I thought she was going to run Augusta through. At the last moment, Augusta pivoted, and Lila missed.
And the next thing I knew, Augusta’s glowing poker cut through Lila’s stomach until it was sticking out her back.
Lila stared down at the piece of metal that speared her abdomen, her expression frozen in shock. Even Augusta looked stunned, and though it only lasted a moment, she dropped her poker as if she’d also been burned. Lila sank to the floor, and Augusta’s expression smoothed.
“I’m so sorry, dear, but you gave me no choice. You’re just like your mother.”
Knox flew across the room and knelt beside Lila. “Christ, Augusta, what did you do?”
“No matter,” she said, and despite her cold facade, her voice broke. “We have a spare.”
Knox touched the bleeding wound in Lila’s belly, and she moaned. “We have to get her to the infirmary. She’s going to die—”
“Kitty?”
Cold terror poured through me, and hoping to hell I’d imagined it, I glanced at the entrance.
Benjy stood in the doorway, and he stared at Lila, his face ashen.
“Benjy, please, it’s not me,” I said. “You have to get out of here.”
Augusta tried to smile, but it wavered. “You’re just in time, young man. Why don’t you join us?”
Benjy stepped inside, looking between Lila and me. “Is she—”
“She gave me no choice,” said Augusta, and for a moment her eyes watered before she blinked and regained her composure. Still holding Knox’s gun, she gestured toward Benjy. “You’ll cooperate, though, won’t you, Kitty? You’ll do the right thing, and you and your friend will both get to live.”
I stood there, choking on my own fear. Lila was dying because she’d fought back, and I couldn’t even find the courage to spit in Augusta’s face. I deserved my III. I deserved everything that had happened to me if I couldn’t do the one thing I had to do in order to stop this. It was Daxton all over again.
“She needs a doctor,” said Knox. He ripped off his shirt and pressed it against Lila’s wound, the poker still inside her belly. “You can’t do this, Augusta. Think about your family.”
She didn’t care about her family, though. The only person she did care about was—
“Think about Greyson,” I blurted. “They’re best friends. If you let her die, he’ll hate you, and you’ll have no one. You can’t hurt him like this, not if you want him to love you anymore.”
Augusta stiffened, and for a fraction of a second, I thought I saw her expression waver. “Very well,” she said. “I’ll give you a choice, Lennox.”
I had a clear shot now, and if I unloaded the clip, I would have a chance of hitting her. Knox was close enough that he could wrestle her gun away from her—
But if I missed, she could kill Benjy. I didn’t move.
“What choice?” said Knox hoarsely. Lila lay by his side, growing paler and paler as the blood drained out of her. His shirt was soaked now, and his hands were covered in it.
“Do not think for a moment I am not aware of the role you have played in this mess,” said Augusta. “You will remain alive because it would pain Daxton to have to tell your father you are dead, and I do not wish to hurt him. So you have a choice—things stay as they are, and Lila dies, or I kill Kitty’s little friend, and Lila gets to take a trip to the infirmary to see if she can be saved.”
My mouth dropped open. Benjy? But why—
It hit me, and I finally understood.
Augusta knew everything. She knew Celia was the leader of the Blackcoats. She knew Knox had been playing both sides, and she knew how much I trusted him. I would never have gone along with Celia if he hadn’t been there, too.
And Augusta knew I would have nothing to do with him or the Blackcoats ever again if he let Benjy die.
For a split second, Knox’s eyes met mine, and when his shoulders slumped, I knew what he was going to say.
“No!” I started to stand, but Augusta pointed her gun at me, and I stopped cold. “Please, Knox—”
“Me,” said Lila weakly. “Knox, let her kill me. He—doesn’t deserve—”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered to Lila, and he kissed her forehead before addressing Augusta. “I need Benjy’s help carrying Lila down to the infirmary. Then do it.”
“I’m afraid that isn’t an option,” said Augusta. “However, since you’ve made your decision, I will happily oblige.”
All the air left my lungs. Benjy stood still as a statue, and I silently willed him to run. “Please,” I begged Augusta, desperation clawing at me. “You can’t.”
“Oh yes, my darling, I can,” said Augusta. “Perhaps now you will understand just how powerless you truly are.”
Suddenly the world around me seemed to move in slow motion. Augusta aimed, and Benjy flinched, but everything was sluggish, as if time had slowed down to give me a moment to decide what to do.
My mind was made up. All I needed was that extra second. I pulled the gun from my holster and raised it. I didn’t need to know how to aim properly in order to line up the barrel with her body and pull the trigger.
And I did.
Over and over and over again, until only a faint click remained.
In the back of my mind, I heard shouts and the thunder of footsteps. I felt hands on me and tried to shake them off, but when Benjy wrapped his arms around me, I stopped, limp in his embrace, and I dropped the gun.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Knox and Greyson carry Lila toward the door, and I heard more shouts as a dozen guards rushed in. The sound of Knox’s voice filled the room as he issued orders, and the guards went from outraged to determined as they produced a stretcher seemingly out of nowhere and carried Lila away.
But the only thing I understood was Augusta’s bullet-riddled body lying in a pool of blood that slowly expanded, staining the white carpet crimson.
XX
Trust
Benjy refused to let go of me as Knox led us down to the infirmary. Greyson stayed with the handful of guards that remained in the room to deal with Augusta’s body, but there was still no sign of Celia. I couldn’t find it in me to care. Everything seemed fuzzy, and the only things anchoring me to reality were the feel of Benjy’s arms around me and the sound of Knox’s footsteps beside me.
I’d killed her. One moment she was alive and talking, and the next she was dead, all because of me. I knew I’d had no real choice. If I hadn’t, Benjy and Lila would both be dead, but that didn’t stop the guilt from hemorrhaging through me.
When we reached the infirmary, Benjy set me down in a chair and pulled up another so he could sit beside me. By the time I looked up, Knox was gone. I didn’t see where he went, but there was only one place to go: Lila’s bedside.
Benjy didn’t say a word, and I was grateful for the silence. He rubbed slow circles on my back, and I struggled to forget the image of Augusta lying dead on the carpet. Instead I tried to remember what Benjy’s face had looked like when she’d been moments away from killing him.
It didn’t help.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. He stroked my hair rhythmically, and for a moment I pretended we were back in the group home and none of this had ever happened. It was just him and me, and the Harts were in a completely different universe.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he said. “You did what you had to do. Just—in the future, don’t risk your life doing it, all right?”
I tried to smile, but my chin trembled. “I should—I should never have left you and gone with Tabs. I only went to the club because I wanted to stay with you.”
My voice cracked, and Benjy nuzzled the top of my head. “I know,” he murmured. “You did the best you could with what you had.”
I didn’t deserve him. Burying my face in his chest, I let his shirt soak up the tears leaking from my eyes. “I’m sorry for everything with Knox, too.”
Benjy snorted. “I told him if he touched you again, I’d—”
He stopped, and I knew what he was going to say. He’d kill him. It wasn’t a joke anymore, though.
“Listen, Kitty,” he said, pulling back enough to look me in the eye. “I won’t pretend to be all right with everything that’s been done to you, but I know you didn’t ask for any of it. Lila’s engaged to Knox, and you can’t—you can’t still be her and not be. So—I get that. But you don’t have to be her anymore. We’ll get to leave now, and everything will be okay. We can go someplace where no one will find us.”
My fingers tightened around his. I’d been preparing to die ever since I’d injected that drug into Daxton’s veins, and the possibility of surviving this—I’d given up hope. But in that moment, after everything that had happened that day, I let myself believe Benjy. Celia and Knox and Greyson would allow me to walk away from this, and no one would ever know that Kitty Doe hadn’t died after all. Benjy and I would find a place by the beach, and we would be happy. And neither of us would ever have to see another Hart again.
“That would be nice,” I whispered, and Benjy smiled and wrapped his arms around me once more.