Hailey's desire to kill Lena lived.

As she aimed her blue eyes at Betty's unconscious body, Hailey planned on killing Lena.

As she stood, Hailey planned on killing Lena.

As she watched her mother stare at Betty, Hailey planned on killing Lena.

She had to. If Lena lived for twenty-four more hours, she might kill Nova. Nova's death. Her mother and her sister could prevent it from happening so soon.

Lena's bedroom was next to Betty's. But the self-proclaimed greatest High had lost more than one fight against Hailey. The gray-eyed Lena wasn't a great fighter. Hailey and her mother could afford to exchange words with Lena nearby. They doubted she would kill either of them. She could try to, of course. She wouldn't succeed.

Hailey looked at Lena's caretaker.

Betty Fly stayed on the floor, not alert. Hailey's mother had forced unconsciousness on her.

Hailey had to hammer death into Lena.

Betty had been in the same place as Lauren when a Freeman murdered her, and she would be in the same space station as Lena when Hailey murdered her. The Majestic didn't intend to stop Betty's heart.

No, Lena had to die.

"I've killed a lot of Freemans, Hailey," Hailey's mother said. She kneeled next to Betty. "I'm not going to kill this woman. Only one person in this space station has to die."

Yes. And Hailey had embraced that person. But she didn't hug that blind ruler now, and the Soynite dagger she wielded might take the High's life.

Before the day died, Hailey would have to kill Lena.

Betty. She had warned Hailey about Lena yesterday, healed her, and showed her compassion. The Watcher and her charge weren't alike.

Not all life mattered.

Vera had tried shoving that belief into Hailey. Now, as she held a sharp dagger she planned on using to end Lena's life, Hailey wished her Watcher could see her. She wielded a tool that could kill.

For so long, with ignorance, Hailey had believed all life was precious.

She had made that foolish belief disappear.

Hailey had saved Lena. The Majestic held a dagger she planned on using to murder. The blind High, Lena, was alive. In her was life, which she didn't deserve. Hailey needed to prevent Nova from being murdered by a girl with useless eyes and a hunger to dominate.

Lena wasn't in the space surrounding Hailey.

The room was furnished with a bed, a wooden dresser, and a desk. A notebook sat on its wooden surface, shut.

Because she couldn't see, Lena couldn't read. But Hailey and her mother had working eyes. They could take in whatever words the notebook had. Lena couldn't. If Hailey's plan worked, Lena would never pick up that notebook and read it.

A photograph wasn't taped to the wall. Hailey had taped a picture of her father to her bedroom's wall, as if the deed would have brought him home safe.

No, Hailey's father hadn't come home. Her mother had returned. Not the girl's father.

Blood didn't descend Hailey's neck. She hoped her father didn't bleed. Wherever he was, Theo Majestic had earned the right to bathe in comfort, peace, safety.

Hailey's mother pressed a hand against the door, pushed. It closed. The woman locked it.

"Betty should be unconscious for a couple of hours," Hailey's mother said. "Meanwhile, I won't go down very easily."

"I know, Mother," Hailey said.

Her mother had spent years being distant. A long gap between Hailey and her mother had lasted, but it had closed. That had occurred earlier.

While living with Betty and Lena, Hailey had been motherless.

What was it like to be a thirteen-year-old without a mother?

Hailey knew.

Her former friend had no mother. Always. It was a constant in that girl's life. Hailey's mother wouldn't make her into a Majestic. The blind High would never be Lena Majestic. What if the chance of that happening was as unlikely as Boris Endman being alive and seeing a great grandchild of his in the future?

"Do you still want to kill Lena?" Hailey's mother said, her shoes near an unconscious woman's orange hair. The mother didn't wield her Strife dagger. She had dropped it before Betty had last consciousness. "If you don't want to, I'll do it. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. I won't make you do anything you're uncomfortable with. I'm not Vera."

"Yes, I still want to kill Lena," Hailey said.

Nova.

As long as Lena lived, the possibility she would kill Nova remained. Hailey had to speak to her sister. Her older sister.

Hailey didn't do it, because Nova wasn't in the room. Embracing her would bring a smile to Hailey's face. Yet the sisters didn't hug. They couldn't.

Hailey's mother cupped the back of the girl's head, kissed her forehead. No, the woman wasn't Vera.

She was better.

"You are great, Hailey," Hailey's mother said, stroking the younger Majestic's hair. "You'll kill Lena and your sister will be safe. She won't be in danger anymore."

Hailey's mother had returned to a different space station, her home. She had hugged her third child. Hailey. Her mother had come back for her. Nick, though, hadn't been with their mother. Hailey had reunited with her in a bedroom. Together, in Betty's room, they planned on helping Nova. The mother and daughter were distant from their loved one, a girl with a Freeman son they didn't know about. They could give her help.

Having a mother and sister assisting her from a distance was Nova's reality.

Beyond the closed door was blindness. Lena's blindness.

Hailey, with good fortune, could end the danger to Nova.

Lena.

She had tried murdering Hailey in the space station's cafeteria the day before, and the Majestic hadn't forgotten. She remembered. And she didn't forget her mother needed to see Lena's lifeless corpse.

Soon.

Hailey and her mother had to live, and Lena had to die. It was as simple as that. Its simpleness brought comfort. The dagger Hailey carried would have to stab death into Lena. If she lived long enough, she would become even more like Lock Tannis. Right?

Hailey's mother believed so.

A Soynite more terrible than Lena had a beating heart, and Hailey might kill him.

Her desire to take Lock's life had grown stronger. It raged. Hailey had killed her pacifism, and her desire to get rid of the Freeman ruler had come to life.

Lock was out there, and so were Don Ascend and other former Highs. Traitors.

Boris Endman had become Lock's substitute High, and Hailey's father had made it happen. Before that, Boris had been friends with Theo and the other current former Highs anyway. He and Lock had been allies, companions, friends.

Had Lock murdered Boris? If he had, why?

In time, no doubt, Hailey would hear someone mention Boris.

His granddaughter, Alice Endman, preferred being called Zoey. A horrible kidnapper had forced that name onto the girl, her victim. Zoey was Alice. No matter what name Misty had given her, Zoey's original name would always be Alice.

The floor underneath Hailey's shoes was blue. Did her father stand on a Freeman base's black floor? What about a space station laced with Soynite screams?

Wherever Hailey's father was, she had to find him.

His wife, Hailey's mother, had found one of their children. There were three more of Theo's children out there.

Two girls. One boy.

Hailey's mother had spent more time with Nick than she had with Hailey, Nova, and Anne.

Nova. Her mother hadn't spent enough time with her. The woman had given birth to Nova, but her younger brother took care of her. Ken had his oldest niece. Hailey hoped so, at least.

"Betty has a notebook," Hailey's mother said. She approached the notebook, lifted it off the desk, and then opened to a random page. She said yesterday's date. "Me and Lena met a girl named Hailey Majestic today. She's a child of Theo Majestic. His third one, actually. She told me Lock Tannis is a Soynite. He's Reed Pisces, the former High that Theo exiled so many years ago. Lena hurt Hailey. But I didn't stop her. Whatever my High wants, she can have. Lena's blindness makes her even more deserving. The poor girl can't even fly anymore. And I know that she loves to hurt people, but I have to keep her safe. I'm her Watcher. And I can't disappoint Boone. Lena has to become worthy. When she reunites with her father again, she has to see him. She has to."

Hailey's mother slammed the notebook shut. She dropped it onto the desk, then slapped its blue cover.

"Not every Soynite deserves to see, Betty," Hailey's mother said. "And my baby is going to kill this blind monster you love so much."

Hailey had killed Freemans and she could do the same to the monster.

Lena had proved to be a horrible ruler, a tyrant.

It was Hailey's duty to kill her, before the blind girl became Nova's murderer.

With her mother, Hailey had gone into a space station that had been her home. They were infiltrators.

Lena was the target. With a blue dagger, she had displayed murderous intent.

Hailey had been her target.

Two Majestics wanted to see Lena's corpse lay in the space station. The Fly residence.

Lena was the third High of the new generation of Highs, the girl who had arrived outside that spaceport after Nova. Lena wasn't like Hase Majestic with breasts. No, she was almost as bad as Lock Tannis. Harshness dwelled in her.

"I never should've left you, Hailey," Hailey's mother said, standing with her back turned. She faced her daughter. Betty's bed stayed between them. "While I was with Nick, you were suffering. You didn't deserve to. You still don't. Lena should've hurt me, not you. If I could have switched places with you yesterday, I would've. I've never wanted anyone to hurt you. And I never will. You needed your mother, but she was too busy being as foolish as Lena. I should've gone back to you so much earlier. If I went back to you yesterday, you wouldn't have gotten hurt by that blind monster. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I wasn't there for you, Hailey."

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A bed blocked Hailey's path to her mother, but the woman was in the room. She and Hailey both. Away from them was the blind Lena and her stepsister, Zoey, but Hailey and her mother stood near the unconscious Betty. Hailey's mother had made the Watcher become that way. Hailey had sat while her mother injected Betty with Vamp.

Hailey and her mother had reunited. They were a team.

"That's not the case now," Hailey said. "My mother is in the same room as me. You're here. You're right here. And I'm glad you weren't able to switch places with me yesterday. I don't ever want Lena to hurt you, and I don't ever want her to hurt Nova. I know that me and Nova haven't met yet, but I already love her. And I have to do what I have to do, so that I can see my older sister. I have to. If there's a chance Lena will stop that from happening, I have to stop her. No exceptions. I want Nova to care about me. That won't happen if Lena finds her before we do."

Hailey's mother walked closer. She stopped, pressed a hand against the bed.

"You will meet Nova," Hailey's mother said. "You've only seen her, but you're going to talk to her, too. And both of you will love each other. My sibling is with yours. Your uncle, Ken, won't let Nova die. He knows what she is to him. She's family. Nova is family to us, too. And we have to protect our family. Nova and Ken have already met the monster in this space station, and you've met her. Will one dead High be a big loss, when there are five more of them?"

Six Highs.

One of them was Hailey's older sister. Another was a blind girl with a cane she had struck Hailey with.

The thirteen-year-old couldn't let Lena have the power to hurt Nova. Hailey had to make sure Lena would never hurt anyone else, and the younger girl's weapon, her Soynite dagger, could end Lena Fly.

"Lena isn't even a good person," Hailey's mother said. "When she's dead, we'll celebrate."

"Lena is smart, but she's horrible," Hailey said. Her mother nodded. "She has to die, and Nova would agree, if she were here. I've spent years loving her from far away and I really want to meet her. I've wanted to do that for as long as I can remember. She deserves to be safe. If there's anyone planning on killing her, I have to kill them first."

Hailey's mother didn't have the syringe she had used to put Vamp inside Betty. It stayed on the floor. Like Lena's Watcher.

Where was that sightless High? Where was her sister?

Zoey. Her existence had made Hero spare Misty Windsore's life. Zoey had influence. Lena had people wanting to see her die.

Hailey's mother pressed her other hand against the bed. "You'll kill anyone you have to."

Would Hailey kill Lena?

If she wished to meet Nova, she would have to.

Nova might be filled with life. If she was, if no one had murdered her, and if she hadn't killed herself, she could meet Hailey in the future.

Their mother's younger brother, Ken Herman, had been assigned as Nova's Watcher. Hailey's father had wanted that to happen, so it had become the truth.

Valuable jewels and Earth money had gone into the possession of Lena and the other passengers of the spaceship that had taken them to Earth. Lena, though, lived in a space station Betty had earned before the invasion.

"And I have to kill a High," Hailey said. "I have to. My sister is out there, and so is Lena. They can't see each other again. If they do, it won't be good. Lena will try to kill Nova. We already know she'll try to."

"Because we know exactly what kind of person Lena is," Hailey's mother said. "She's our High, but she's not great. Your father is. He turned Lena into a High, but she doesn't even like him. The girl hates him. And she hates Nova."

Nova was far from Hailey. The older girl was still her sister. She was her High.

She loved her sibling-ruler.

Lena, who wasn't related to Hailey, hated Nova.

"Right now, I have to kill Lena," Hailey said. "I want to go to her by myself. You should find me later, or I'll just find you instead."

Hailey's mother moved around the bed. She kissed her daughter's cheek.

"Find Lena," the woman said. "Do that, then make sure that she never gets the chance to kill your older sister. She was talking to Betty, and the girl probably heard us talking. But she's blind. She won't be able to hurt us. Find her, Hailey."

Hailey didn't find Lena in her bedroom, which was next to Betty's.

She found the monster in a huge room. Hailey headed toward the only piece of furniture in the room, a blue chair.

The Majestic didn't drop her dagger.

"I'm back, Lena," Hailey said.

"Welcome to my throne room, Hailey," Lena said, sitting on her throne. Her pale gray eyes shined with tears. "A Freeman murdered my father in this room."

A familiar photograph was taped to Lena's bedroom wall. Hailey had seen it. The picture displayed a man with orange hair and green eyes.

Boone Windsore.

Lena would find what her father, her mother, and Boris Endman had found. Hailey would give Lena the cure for her blindness and powerlessness.

The dagger would grant it.

"I'm sorry," Hailey said. "I really am. I'm sorry that your father is dead. And I'm sorry that I have to..."

Her breath shook.

Lena didn't see Hailey's weapon.

"Me and you aren't friends anymore," Hailey said. "You need to know that. You're horrible. And you tried to kill me yesterday. Someone like that, someone like you, doesn't deserve to be a High. My father should've made me into one. Not you."

Why had the monster in front of her become a ruler? A Freeman had shot and killed Lauren Windsore, but he had failed to do the same to her daughter.

Unfortunate.

Lena scowled, sneered.

Hailey had flung disrespect at her, the girl she had saved.

"Why are you talking to your High like that?!" Lena said, the tyrant's voice thick with fury. "If you didn't save my life, I would grab my cane and beat you with it! You would heal yourself, but I would beat you again!"

The white cane.

Lena's prized tool, her treasured weapon, stayed in its owner's hand. It had struck unwanted pain into Hailey's leg. Betty had healed her. Not long ago, Hailey's mother had shot Vamp into Betty's neck. She couldn't heal anyone.

Betty couldn't help Lena.

Good.

"I've already fought you," Hailey said. "You tried to beat me in the bathroom. You failed. You tried to kill me in the cafeteria. You failed. You call yourself the greatest High, but you're not. And you called me a weakling. But that's what you are. You're the weakling. Not me. When those Freemans were going to kill you yesterday, I saved your life! Me! Even though I did that, you still talked about how much you hate my father and my sister! My father is good! Nova is, too. I love them so much. And I love my mother. I found her. She came back to me, and she's so wonderful. I can't say the same about a certain High."

Lena stood. As she gripped her cane in one hand, the monster clenched her fist.

"You're not just fatherless!" Lena said. "You're dumb, too! You came into my throne room, and now you're insulting Lena Fly's greatness! My greatness! If I were a less compassionate High I would kill you. If you died, I wouldn't miss you. Hailey Majestic, the foolish girl who won't ever find her foolish father. This universe needs him in it. It doesn't need you. It never needed you. Why couldn't you get gunned down on Soy? Why couldn't you get killed in this room? Why did I even have to meet you?!"

Lena stomped the floor, as if a vicious bellma had landed on it.

"I've had to suffer because of two of Theo Majestic's children!" Lena said. She patted her chest, which a dagger needed to penetrate. "Me. I used to live with Reese. Years ago, she was a big problem in my life, and she was even worse than you. She hated me. The feeling was mutual. I don't know how many times I argued with that girl while living with her, but I do know she deserves to die. That girl you call Nova should've died during the invasion. I wish she did. You probably think that the two of you are going to finally hug and love each other. That's not going to happen. Because I don't want it to. I deserve a sister, and I have one. You don't. Where's Reese, Hailey? She's definitely not with you. I don't have to see to know that."

Lena waved a pale hand in front of her face.

"I'm blind, but I've heard you and your mother talking," Lena said. "You want to kill me! Both of you want to make that happen, but you're the one planning on doing it! I wish I killed you in the cafeteria!"

Lena hadn't gotten her wish.

And Hailey's father hadn't returned home. Her mother had hugged her more than once since ending her absence, but Theo Majestic stayed missing.

His second daughter, his third child, had survived a murder attempt.

Each Soynite king in history had been a Majestic. Before Hailey's father had turned Nova into a High, no female Soynite had possessed royal authority. The Soynite queens had been married to Majestics, but they hadn't gained royal power.

Hailey's father had changed the system.

And his ancestor Hase Majestic, King Hase Majestic, was dead and gone. Lena needed to be as well.

Hailey shook her head.

"Pretending to be ignorant wasn't fun," Lena said. "I know why you disrespected me. You want to kill me, and you expect me to go down easily. I knew it before you walked into this room. I can't see, but I can still hear. Planet Still didn't take away my hearing."

Lena deserved to be blind and deaf, but only blindness had pierced her life.

On planet Still, Betty had touched water. She had done it on purpose, hurling blindness into Lena by accident.

Betty had brought Lena's sightlessness. She had rendered her Saveless.

"It took away your sight," Hailey said. "And it took away your Saves. But it didn't take away your compassion. No, you lost that even before Still blinded you. You tried to murder me. I wasn't even a threat to you, but you tried to kill me. What kind of a monster does that? Even if you didn't try to kill me, that doesn't change the fact that you hurt me. You did that more than once. You, Lena! When I first came here, you hit me with your cane. It didn't feel great. It didn't feel great at all."

Lena smiled. "It wasn't supposed to."

The blind High glanced around the room, as if she could see.

"I really wish I could see this room," Lena said. "This is my throne room, Hailey. Not yours. You are never going to have one. What your father did is really simple. Even if you're stupid, which you clearly are, you'll understand this. Your father made me into a ruler. I'm the greatest High. Me. Lena Fly. I have a cane, and it's almost as wonderful as I am. I have a sister, and she's wonderful. I have a Watcher, and your mother has decided not to kill her. Betty knows her place. I can't deny that she's a great Soynite woman. She's not as great as me, but she's closer to my level of greatness than you are."

"You hate the man responsible for your supposed greatness," Hailey said. "He made you into a High. In return, you're always making it seem like he's as bad as Lock Tannis. Theo isn't a second Lock. But I know who is."

Lena scoffed.

"The nonsense that comes out of your mouth makes me want to rip out your heart!" the blind High said. She beat her cane's bottom against the floor. "If you were your ancestor Hase Majestic, you wouldn't be disrespecting me! You would kneel for your High! You would love her! My father is dead! But you blond-haired Majestics get to live. I wonder why that is. It's not as if any of you are as great as I am. Because none of you are."

Hailey pressed a hand against her chest. Her heart beat. It was there, in her body.

She needed her father's heart to keep beating, and her mother's, and Nova's. Nick, Anne, Uncle Ken, and Cape had to live. So did Hailey.

"You're not going to rip out my heart, Lena," Hailey said. "And I'm not my ancestor. I'm a girl who knows what you are."

"Choose your next words very carefully," Lena said.

"You're a tyrant," Hailey said. "The first time you met me, you hurt me with that cane you're holding. I remember why you did it. I said that your eyes are beautiful. You hurt me when you didn't even have to. You're a tyrant. And you're a monster."

"If that's true, am I really the only monster here?" Lena said. "You and mother came here, because both of you awful Majestics want me to die. I told you I love you. I told you what I think happened to your father. You believe that killing me will be the right thing to do, but you should look in a mirror. Look at your reflection. I can't see you, but you're a monster yourself. The original Freemans should've killed Hase Majestic before he made more of you blond-haired fools. If they did that, you wouldn't be bothering me right now. Get killed by a Freeman, you piece of Majestic trash!"

Hailey sighed. "You're ridiculous."

"You're sisterless," Lena said. "I'm not. If all your siblings are dead, don't look for a sister in me. I refuse to see a Majestic as family. Each person with Hase Majestic's genes in them is worthless. You're worthless."

"I can see my worth, Lena," Hailey said. "You can't see your lack of it."

The floor had more worth than Lena.

"You keep disrespecting your High!" Lena said. She took a step forward. Hailey didn't step back. "I don't have to tell you how great I am, because you already know it. We both do. But if you continue to be this much of a fool, I'll have no choice but to hurt you. If you try to kill me, I'll kill you. You see, Hailey, whatever you do, no matter what, you have to survive. And I like living. I do. My grief is temporary. It's going to go away, and you're going to go away. Leave!"

Hailey had left the door to the room open, but she didn't turn and walk toward it.

"I know I'm blind, but are you deaf?!" Lena said. "Are you so overwhelmed by my greatness that your ears have stopped working?! Get out of here!"

Hailey grabbed the cane. She tossed it away. It rolled, harmless, which wasn't what it had been yesterday.

The cane had brought pain. And Hailey had to hurt the girl in possession of it. She had to use the dagger on Lena.

Pain and death.

It was Hailey's duty to hurt and kill Lena Fly.

"Lena, I'm sorry," Hailey said. "But if I let you live, you'll try to kill Nova. The way I see it, the way my mother sees it, you have to die. That's the way it has to be. I'm sorry."

Lena took a step back.

"Zoey!" she said, shouting. "Zoey! Help me! Hailey's trying to—"

Hailey used her foot to send Lena crashing onto the floor. She straddled her.

After Hailey killed the blind monster, Hailey would meet Nova and the older sister would kiss her cheek and be grateful. That had to happen. It needed to become as real as the dagger in Hailey's hand.

"She's trying to kill me!" Lena said, on her back, yelling.

"Be quiet!" Hailey said.

Her heart hammered as her vision blurred. She had to use the dagger. She had to.

A fist shot toward Hailey. She grabbed a pale wrist, then slammed Lena's arm against the floor. A noise erupted from her, coursing with pain.

Lena swung her other fist.

Hailey sliced. Blood spilled from the new wound. Thanks to the blue dagger, Lena's forearm bled.

Hailey was far from Nova, and farther from the desire to let Lena live. The Soynite tyrant's heart had to stop. Before the day died. Before Nova died.

"You cut me!" Lena said. She grimaced. "It hurts!"

"It's supposed to!" Hailey said, warm wetness fleeing her eyes. She grabbed Lena's shirt with one hand, used the blood-adorned blade to slice it open. As blood descended her pale skin, Lena's black bra showed. Near it was bare skin. Underneath flesh and bone was a beating heart. The target. "Goodbye, Lena."

She raised the dagger.

Footsteps arrived, rapid, as if Freemans pursued the new arrival.

"Lena!" Zoey said, her voice striking the high ceiling and the hard floors.

"Zoey!" Lena said. "Help me, my sweet sister! Kill this Majestic piece of trash!"

The bleeding High had asked for help. She hadn't asked Zoey to save her. Even as she bled, Lena wouldn't admit she needed saving.

The not-so-great High had insulted Hailey while bleeding. Lena suffered from her open wound, a torn shirt, and she had made her hatred for Hailey known.

Her blindness would never leave, and her Saves would never return.

Lena would never be worthy. Never.

Pain ran rampant through the bleeding arm, but the uninvited pain wasn't Hailey's. She welcomed Lena's agony-tainted groan.

"It's over!" Hailey said, gripping the dagger. "It's over, Lena! You're not going to kill my sister!"

The footsteps didn't stop. No. Zoey might get too close, then she would ruin the plan. If she ruined it, Lena might kill Nova later.

"Zoey!" Hailey said. "Zoey, get out of..."

... here, she meant to say.

Zoey had sliced her.