Hailey Majestic screamed.

After sitting up, she took short breaths. She panted, no longer trapped in the nightmare. Discomfort dug into her like a red dagger.

Tears blurred her vision. Even a Majestic could cry.

Darkness filled the bedroom. It had been dark in the room when she fell asleep. She turned on the lamp on the nightstand beside the bed, and light came from it. She had a light switch in her walk-in closet. She wouldn't find her father there, though.

Like the walls surrounding her, Hailey's eyes were blue. Her long blonde hair touched her sleeping gown. She was thin, as if she believed being thin would bring her parents back into her life.

Her father was Theo Majestic.

Thirteen years ago, his wife, Lilly, had given birth to Hailey. They had been forced to flee the Soynite royal palace. Hailey's father had gone away from its walls as well. The Majestics couldn't go back to their former home.

On Soy, Hailey's father had transformed six children into Highs, people she needed to kneel for.

Her mother had left the space station, but she would return home. Afterward, Hailey would hug her. Her mother hadn't been in her horrible dream.

The nightmare had ended.

The comfort Hailey's bed brought was like an embrace from Vera, but her next dream might bring tears. She shouldn't go back to sleep anytime soon.

Blood had spilled in her dream. It had belonged to her father. Dream Theo's red blood had contrasted with his killer's pale skin.

Freemans had murdered Soynites.

Like Hailey, each Freeman had their own past, personality, and desires. Free's people didn't deserve to be shot and killed by Soynites.

All life is precious.

As Hailey sat in her bed, she breathed hard, as if she had run from the cafeteria to her room. She cried without shame. Her father couldn't wipe away her tears. Neither could her mother. Hailey's parents couldn't help her, but a certain Bloodhound could, the woman who had found Boris years ago.

Hailey had been a lot smaller when her father brought her to the ruined Soy. Its wind had touched her hair that day, but not trees or grass. Vera had been with her.

On Soy, strife swords had clashed. The men who had wielded them: Theo Majestic and Boris Endman. They hadn't killed each other.

Why hadn't Boris used his teleportation stone to take Hailey, her father, and Vera to Lock?

Boris knew how to destroy. Hailey was aware of that.

Boris and other former Highs had lived with Hailey inside the Soynite royal palace. She had lost her first home. If she killed Lock, his palace would become her new residence, and his Freemans would kneel for her. But she would rather spare their ruler than kill him. If she took someone's life, it would be terrible, like waking up and discovering your eyes had vanished while you slept.

Hailey's parents had left, and Vera had become the only Soynite who protected her, talked to her, and hugged her. Their world had been reduced to a space station.

Former High Theo had spent too long away from his home.

Hailey had dreamed her father had lost his life. Her gaze had never crawled along his corpse, but that didn't mean he hadn't been killed.

Neither did it mean he was dead.

December 25, 2008. Hailey had been born on that day, back when people could walk on grass on Soy.

The Soynite race had been in existence for a much longer time than the human one, and the year 2022 was not the same year the Soy calendar was in.

For the Soynites, the year was 5,000,000,022.

Over five billion years had passed since Hase Majestic's birth.

The twelve months, December being one of them, had come from the Soy calendar. Thanks to the Soynite race, Earth's Gregorian calendar had been created.

Hailey and Vera had gone to Earth before. It was a planet the Highs might have reached. Those children were rulers because Hailey's father had made them that way.

If Freemans had captured him, Hailey would find that former High.

Vera would rather speak disrespect about him than look for the man.

He had found Vera inside a Watcher academy. He had chosen her to be Hailey's Watcher. He had given Vera permission to visit the Soynite royal palace, and he had let her hold Hailey after her birth.

Theo Majestic had been good to Vera Mod.

Why did she treat Hailey's father like someone who didn't deserve to return home?

He wanted to come back to the space station, but he couldn't. That must be the truth. Freemans might have captured Theo.

Footsteps.

Their maker moved fast, as if a Freeman mob followed them. The bedroom door swung open. Vera Mod rushed into the room. Tears fell, but they didn't come from the Bloodhound.

Vera wielded a weapon. It had a white handle and a blue blade, and it could cut someone's life short. If Hailey held the Soynite dagger, she would rather use it to cut a fruit, not a person. Unlike Vera, Hailey hadn't stopped believing all life was precious.

Vera glanced around the room, but armed Freemans didn't stand in it.

"What happened, Hailey?" Vera said, speaking Soynite. She and Hailey preferred to communicate in their native language. Vera walked closer to the desk that touched the wall, then set her dagger on it. "I don't see any enemies in here, but you're crying. Why?"

Hailey lifted her Soynite pendant off the nightstand before putting it on. She gripped it. It showed a triangle with a circle hovering above it, and the two shapes were white. The pendant had been with Hailey when Freemans attacked the Soynite royal palace, when her mother left the space station, and when her father tried killing Boris.

Vera walked toward the bed, and the light glowed against her brown hair. Hailey couldn't resurrect the Freemans Vera had killed.

"I had a nightmare," Hailey said. "My father got killed by a Freeman."

"In the nightmare, of course," Vera replied. She sat on the bed. "Do you want a hug, Hailey?"

Hailey couldn't see her father, mother, or anyone else she shared her last name with, but she could embrace her Watcher today.

"Yes, please," Hailey said.

She hugged Vera, and her Watcher embraced her back.

"Thank you," Hailey said.

She wore a blue sleeping gown, but no shoes covered her feet. Neither did socks. A blue crown didn't touch her hair. Her sixth cousin had earned the right to wear one. She hadn't. The crown her father used to wear stayed in his bedroom, touching nobody.

Hailey shut her eyes.

"I need to see him again," she said, as Vera stroked her blonde hair. "He left, but he's not dead. He can't be. I think the Freemans took him. They took my father away."

"If they did, we're going to kill them to get your father back," Vera said.

Hailey opened her eyes, and the hug ended.

After wiping away Hailey's tears, Vera moved off the bed. Transparent tape pinned a photograph against the wall. Hailey had put it there. It displayed her father, who smiled in the picture. When would she see him smile again?

Vera looked at the picture. Gazing at it wouldn't make Hailey's father step into the room. She wished it would.

"I don't think Freemans captured him," Vera said. Unlike Hailey, the woman had brown eyes. "He abandoned us, and your mother did the same. Your father told me not to look for him, then he left. He left me. And he left you too."

Hailey bowed her head. Her father had left, but he would return if he could.

The former High had been apart from his daughter and Vera for too long.

Hailey clung to the blue comforter, as if it were her father. He had gained all the Saves. He could heal wounds. If Hailey developed the power to make people's injuries vanish, she would smile.

No one deserved to suffer. Not the Soynites. Not the Freemans.

If Hailey lived long enough, she would earn the power to heal wounds. Her father was a Pure. He and Hailey had that in common. They were Majestics, too. Someone who lacked their last name could gain it. Even a High.

Lilly hadn't been born with the Majestic surname. She had adopted it after marrying Hailey's father.

The woman had left with a boy and never came back. Less than a week after the Invasion, Hailey's father had departed. He hadn't taken her with him. Or Vera. He hadn't left with a person he loved. Theo Majestic had gone solo.

Had he gone into a grave?

He wasn't the Supreme High anymore. Only the leader of the Highs could turn Soynites into Highs, and that person had been Hailey's father.

"Look at me, Hailey," Vera said. Hailey looked at her. "Christine Cross. Sydney Shame. Devin Hall. Do you know those Soynites?"

Christine Cross.

Sydney Shame.

Devin Hall.

Hailey shook her head. "No. I don't know those people, but I hope I meet them one day."

Hailey had met Vera years ago. Theo had delivered Hailey, and Vera had waited hours to hold her. They hadn't lived together back then. Now they did. But they couldn't see Hailey's parents.

Maybe Christine, Sydney, and Devin wanted to find Theo Majestic too.

The more friends Hailey had, the higher the chance she would reunite with her father. And if she met Christine, Sydney, and Devin, she would get the opportunity to be good to those people.

"I've never met them, either," Vera said. "But I've seen them. I've seen them in visions of the past. And they might help us. They're Soynites. And we would have an easier time surviving if they were on our side. Even if we never meet them, even if me and you are the last Soynites in this universe, I need you to be ready."

Vera gripped Hailey's shoulders. She held eye contact with the slim Bloodhound.

"You're not a defenseless infant anymore, Hailey," Vera said. "You need to be ready to kill. While you're being a pacifist, the Freemans are breeding. And a bunch of former Highs are hunting us down. Boris Endman didn't kill us the last time we saw him, but that doesn't mean he won't be so kind the next time he sees us. And you already know what the Freemans will do to any Soynite who isn't allied with their ruler."

Stolen novel; please report.

Hailey didn't fight for Lock Tannis. She fought for no one. Vera had trained her, but the woman hadn't given Hailey the urge to hurt people.

"You're thirteen years old," Vera said. "It's time for you to become a warrior. Yes, fighting our enemies will put us in danger. But we've been in danger more than once. We survived because of me. I intend to kill whoever needs to get killed, but I need your help. You have to assist me. And it isn't just because I want to survive for as long as I can. The others need us to help them, Hailey."

Who had helped the Freemans who had come into the space station? Not Vera. Even Hailey's father and mother had slain Freemans, people who had been alive before encountering them.

Would Hailey's pacifism float away, like a balloon with a broken string?

No.

Hailey placed her hands against Vera's, trapping the woman's hands.

"I'm sorry, Vera," Hailey said. "I have to be like my grandfather. I can't become a murderer. I won't. Holy Majestic wouldn't want me to. Neither would Hase. You want me to help the other Soynites by turning into a killer, but all life is precious."

Vera frowned before bowing her head, disappointed, as if she were reliving the moment when Hailey's mother had left the space station.

Her father had created a government system revolving around six rulers. Theo had been born as a prince, but he had changed Soy's government.

He had been a prince.

He had been a king.

He had been a High.

If he hadn't changed Soy's government, Hailey would have been born as a princess.

"Vera," she said. Vera forced her hands away from Hailey's, then faced a wall. "Vera, please talk to me. Did my father actually tell you not to look for him?"

"Yes," Vera said. She rubbed her forehead, as if it had struck the wall. "He doesn't want to be found. It doesn't even matter. You won't make me disobey your father's wish. You respect him too much."

By making Vera search for Theo, Hailey would disobey his wish.

Making Vera disobey him would be bad, but it wouldn't be as horrible as killing someone.

"I can't make you look for my father," Hailey said. She brought her bare feet to the floor. "Making you look for him would be bad. If I do that, I wouldn't be making him happy."

Maybe Theo had encountered trouble, the kind that got someone shoved into a Freeman prison cell.

What if Lock's people hadn't captured Hailey's father?

If Theo was free and enjoying his time away from Hailey and Vera, the Majestic might make her father scowl if she made Vera find him.

"You're getting better at understanding how to handle this plight," Vera said. She ran her fingers through Hailey's hair, then kissed the blonde strands. "You can't be a hero, Hailey. You can't make me look for your father, because he doesn't want me to find him. Even if you do manage to reunite with him, he wouldn't be like he used to be. He changed."

"What do you mean by that?" Hailey asked.

"You might see what I mean," Vera said. "One day. Right now, I need you to stop thinking about your father. He's gone. He might even be dead. If he is still alive, he would only disappoint you. He already disappointed me."

Hailey looked at the picture on the wall. Her father had left, but the photograph hadn't. Yes, he had disappointed Vera. Hailey had done the same. In truth, more than once.

But her father loved her. No matter what Vera had said, he deserved to be found. Maybe he didn't want Hailey to search for him. But she should try bringing him home.

She had to be good, but being a good person didn't mean you had to be a fool.

Hailey stood.

If she didn't try reuniting with her father, she would be a fool. She had disappointed Vera. And she would have to do it again.

Hailey fiddled with her fingers.

Gazing at the photograph strengthened her urge to embrace her father. He didn't stand on the blue floor beneath her feet. He couldn't be in her room. Or the cafeteria. The space station, Hailey's home, lacked a great man's presence.

"It's just me and you," Vera said. She put her hand on Hailey's shoulder. "I never abandoned you. You know that. Your father is gone. He's been gone for a long time, and I know that you wish he was still here. But you should respect his wish. Some people don't want to be found."

Maybe hard walls and Freeman voices surrounded Hailey's father.

"My father isn't one of them," Hailey said. "He was captured, I think."

Vera sighed. "You think."

"Yes," Hailey said. "My father needs to be found. He told you not to look for him, but he might be in trouble. We have to find him, Vera."

Vera moved her hand away from Hailey's shoulder, as if she had become too repulsing to touch.

"I'm not going to look for Theo Majestic," Vera said. "And that's final, Hailey."

Vera's refusal to search for Hailey's father presented a challenge. He had known Vera for more than a decade. He had loved her for years, yet his Bloodhound friend preferred to not look for him.

Hailey looked at the picture on the wall.

Vera glanced at it. "I'm more useful than he is."

She had lived with Hailey longer than the girl had resided with her father. Every day, Vera patrolled the space station's halls. She acted as if a threat to Hailey were a threat to herself. Vera could see the past and the future. She could also locate anyone, but she acted like finding Hailey's father would kill all three of them.

Summer had shot him, but she hadn't murdered him. He had survived that woman's attack, and he had lived through the Freemans' assault on the Soynite royal palace.

Vera had survived.

Like the average Watcher, she had graduated from a Watcher academy when she was twenty years old. When Lilly gave birth to Hailey inside the Soynite royal palace, Vera had been in the building. She had met the defenseless newborn.

A laser beam to the head could kill Hailey. She couldn't rapidly regenerate. And she couldn't heal wounds. She didn't have the powers her father had.

She had stopped being a defenseless baby, but she lacked the will to kill. The Freemans were living beings. Just like Hailey, her father, and Vera. Those three didn't deserve to die. Neither did the Freemans.

"My father has all the Saves," she said. "And you have the power to find him, but you won't do it. You can put your power to good use and locate him."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because he's my father."

"He's someone who doesn't want to be found."

Hailey rubbed the picture on the wall. She would turn fourteen on her next birthday. When that day came, would her father be inside the space station?

He had been born over a billion years ago. His birthday was the first of January.

He and the other former Highs, all seven of them, had gained immortality. Maybe Hailey would live long enough to develop that power. If that happened, she might help millions of people afterward.

The Highs.

Those six children had become the former Highs' leaders, and those men were supposed to serve Cape and the kids he had escaped Soy with.

Yet Boris Endman and other former Highs acted as if Lock had promised to make their worries vanish.

Like Hailey's father, Boris possessed great power. Though when he clashed with Theo, Boris hadn't been able to use his Saves. Strife had made sure of that.

Hailey would smile if she stood in a room with her father. If he were with her, he could see how much she had grown. She had turned thirteen last year. She wasn't a toddler anymore.

During Vera's time at the Watcher academy she had graduated from, she had learned how to raise children, and that had helped during Theo's absence.

Hailey's father might be in a place where he didn't deserve to be. She and Vera had gotten older since the last time they had been with Theo. Hailey had grown from a toddler to a teenager, and her father had missed too many of her two-person birthday parties.

Another Majestic, Cape, had gone to Earth.

He didn't live with Hailey. He couldn't speak to her, and he couldn't help her find her father.

If armed Freemans pursued Hailey's sixth cousin, she wouldn't be able to help him. Maybe he would rescue a cousin of his. Maybe they would help each other survive.

Hailey's toes touched her bedroom's hard floor. The vacuum of outer space surrounded the home. Cape might be on Earth. Wherever he was, Hailey doubted he would get assistance from her anytime soon. Regardless, other Soynites might help him.

Lock's warriors had come to the space station before, but Vera had disposed of them. She had turned them into smoke. She acted like Lock's warriors deserved to die.

The space station housed the object that had created Hase and the other five original Soynites.

The Soy Maker.

Hailey and Vera had searched for it in the home, but they hadn't found it. If Theo came back, they could ask him where he had hidden the Soy Maker.

Would Hailey find Cape?

"I want to meet Cape," she said.

"You might get the chance," Vera said. "Unfortunately, Cape is probably fighting for his life as I speak. He and his Watcher might be running for their lives right now."

If Cape and his Watcher ran from Freemans, Hailey hoped the two Soynites would escape.

"Be glad that you don't have to run from any Freemans," Vera said. "They are terrible people. If Cape is dealing with them right now, he's in a horrible situation, and there's a chance no Majestic is with him."

Blue walls surrounded Hailey, the only person in the room who carried the surname Majestic.

"There are no Majestics with me," Hailey said. "What if there are none around my father? He might be trapped inside a Freeman base, with no other Majestics to keep him company. He might even be the only Soynite there."

Hailey had a Bloodhound as her companion, the only one she saw on a daily basis. Vera had killed to keep the Majestic family safe. But she wouldn't find Hailey's father and bring him home.

His wife, Lilly, wouldn't be okay with letting him remain in possible trouble.

"Maybe Cape is with him," Vera said.

Freemans had murdered Soynite men, women, and children. The average Soynite preferred not to go into a base Lock's people occupied. Yet Hailey's father might be trapped in one. She frowned.

"It's just speculation," Vera said. She brushed her brown hair with her hand. "Speculation doesn't always mean fact. And never forget that the Freemans are ruthless brutes."

Vera gestured to space around her.

"Look at this room, Hailey," she said. "You sleep in here because you can't sleep inside the Soynite royal palace. You remember why that is, don't you?"

Hailey looked at the floor.

"Me and you live in a space station because pale fools destroyed our planet," Vera said. "We went to the ruins. Your father was there too. I held you as he fought Boris Endman. Our planet is lifeless. Soy is dead, and I stood on its corpse. The Freemans made it that way. They did that, Hailey. You shouldn't have compassion for any of them. They ruined Soynite society. They slaughtered our people. Even Soynite babies were murdered. Maybe Anne was murdered."

"Please don't say that," Hailey said. Her hands shook.

Vera put a finger on the photograph taped to the wall. Hailey would see the man in the picture again, with or without Vera's help.

"He's the most powerful Soynite in the universe," Vera said. "He's gone too. Boris didn't kill him on Soy, but your father is still gone. He might as well be dead."

Hailey rubbed her hands against her sleeping gown. She had suffered through a nightmare, and her father hadn't been in the room when she opened her eyes. But he hadn't died.

"My father is alive," Hailey said, speaking with confidence, as if she had seen Theo Majestic six seconds ago.

"I admit that I don't know everything," Vera said. She moved her finger away from the photograph. "I don't know where your father is, and I don't even know if there are other Soynites out there. We might be the last members of our kind."

Had the space station become the last place where Soynites could be found?

No.

Hailey couldn't see them, but Soynites lived outside her home, people like her father and mother. She refused to believe a thirteen-year-old Majestic and a fierce Bloodhound were the last members of their kind.

"We're not the only Soynites left," Hailey said. Vera didn't look at her. "My father is alive. So is Cape. The Freemans are never going to kill them. My father is still here. Somewhere, Vera."

Theo wasn't in the space station, but he must be alive.

"Your father isn't here," Vera said, pointing at the floor. "And you need to forget about him."

"I can't," Hailey replied.

"You have to."

Hailey walked closer to her bed. She rubbed the blue pillow, and hoped her parents slept in comfortable beds.

Vera and Hailey's father used to hug each other. They were friends, yet the woman acted as if he had abandoned her inside a Freeman base. That hadn't happened. Whether she wanted to or not, it was Vera's duty to find him.

Hailey's father, her mother, Vera, and too many other Soynites had slaughtered Freemans. Members of Hailey's race had turned into killers. Good Soynites had become murderers.

Maybe some of the Highs had become killers.

Lock Tannis had slain Free's previous leader. Hailey would have to kill him to gain Freeman leadership.

As the deadliest Soynite, Hailey's father possessed the best chance to kill Lock. Theo was gone. Not Hailey.

If she became Lock's slayer, Freemans would kneel for her.

But taking another life was wrong. Hase had spared Freeman lives, and Hailey had managed to avoid murdering anyone. So far.

She needed to die as an uncorrupted Soynite.

Hailey pressed her hands against the comforter. Its blue softness didn't hurt her, but she hadn't forgotten too many people had harmed others.

"And you need to hope that the Highs we have now aren't like most of the former ones," Vera said. "Your father is the only former High who didn't join Lock Tannis. Those men who lived in that palace with you don't care about you. Not anymore, Hailey. Boris Endman and the others loved you, and then they decided supporting Lock would be better than staying friends with your father. Most of the former Highs will kill you if given the chance. You've never even met the current ones. Can you guarantee that one of them won't try to murder you?"

"I can guarantee that I'll always be okay," Hailey said.

Soynites had collapsed and never got up again, lifeless. Not Hailey. She could meet a High and serve him or her. She wouldn't glare if one made her kneel. As she drowned in Vera's presence, Hailey needed to stand and breathe in front of a Soynite ruler.

"What a massive burden, being so recklessly optimistic," Vera said.

She caressed Hailey's hair, doing what the girl's mother used to do. Lilly couldn't show Hailey affection.

As far as she knew, her mother hadn't seen her in eleven years.

When she was born, Theo and Lilly had been with her. Not Vera. Hailey's parents had left, but Vera hadn't gone with them. She had stayed with Hailey, and she had raised her.

"The Highs are probably like me," Hailey said. "Soynites are supposed to be hopeful, and that's what the Highs might be."

"It's been years since your father saw them," Vera said. "And it's been years since you saw your father. If you ever meet a High, you should prepare to be disappointed. People can become horrible. Me and you have seen proof of that."

Hailey moved. Her feet slapped against the hard floor. She approached the dresser and opened a drawer. Six photographs displayed the Highs when they were younger, and Hailey pulled out one of the pictures.

Which High would she meet first?

The photograph she held had been in her hand more than once.

Her thumb blocked the High's photographed eyes.

A girl. Orange hair. Green eyes, hidden ones. If people in pictures could see, the photographed High wouldn't see Hailey's face.

"Let's hope none of the Highs are like most of their predecessors," Vera said.

"If some of the Highs are, they would turn good," Hailey said. She put away the photograph and closed the drawer. "And the former ones who joined Lock will become good people again."

"Did you expect the Freemans to attack Soy?"

"No."

"And what ended up happening?"

Hailey tapped her fingers against the dresser's surface.

"Everything will turn out for the best," she said. She faced Vera. "I know that."

"Your father believed that, too," Vera said. She lifted her dagger off the desk. "And he's gone. Forget about him, Hailey. When you do that, I can guarantee that you'll be closer to being okay."

Vera left the room. She had smiled after murdering Freemans. A vicious nature dwelled in Vera, and Hailey couldn't deny it.

Vera had slain Freemans without mercy. She had killed the ones who had invaded the space station, yet Hailey lived, the girl who had failed to save them.

She hadn't succeeded in rescuing Vera's pale victims, but Hailey would find her precious father. She would reunite with him. And she would see the other Majestics she loved.

Where were Hailey's siblings?