Zoey had slit Hailey's throat.

The Majestic tossed the dagger, then she scurried. She moved away from the wounded Lena and the unharmed Zoey.

Warmth fled the hole Zoey had opened. Blood traveled down bare skin.

Boris Endman's granddaughter had opened Hailey's throat.

Hailey's heart pounded. She hoped it would beat tomorrow. She couldn't die before she and Nova embraced. And if Zoey killed her, Hailey would lose the ability to kill Lena. If that happened, Lena would put a certain older sister in danger.

Hailey, kneeling on the hard floor, moved a hand toward the wound.

She healed herself.

Light glistened off blood. Red coated Zoey's blade. The dagger was blue and sharp. Zoey kneeled, set the weapon on the floor. She pulled a Soynite healing glass from her pants pocket.

"Stop!" Hailey said. "Don't heal her!"

Zoey healed Lena.

"It's okay, Lena," Zoey said. She caressed the now uninjured High's cheek. "I'm right here."

A frustrated noise erupted from Lena. She moved onto her hands and knees, stood. She wore a scowl. The girl expressed her hatred for Hailey. The Majestic had almost killed her, so Lena's dislike for the younger teenager was understandable.

But Hailey knew why she had tried murdering Lena. Nova deserved to be safe.

"Kill her, Zoey!" Lena said. "Kill that Majestic fool!"

Zoey stood between her sister and Hailey.

"You tried to kill your own High!" Zoey said, scowling. "You tried to murder your own friend! What would your father think about that?!"

Hailey bowed her head.

She had tried murdering Lena, her former friend, her High. Hailey's father had made the girl into what she was. He believed the Highs would go on the offense and that one of them would kill Lock Tannis.

Hailey lifted her head.

"I didn't kill you," Zoey said. "I knew you were just going to heal yourself. You're alive. And so is my sister. If you weren't Theo Majestic's daughter, maybe I would've killed you."

She had spoken to Hailey, in a way that had made it seem as if the thirteen-year-old were a dagger-wielding Freeman.

Anger rushed through Zoey.

Life ran through Lena. Did she deserve to have a beating heart?

"I just want to protect Nova," Hailey said. "Lena is dangerous, Zoey. She tried to kill me yesterday. If Nova were here, Lena might try to kill her."

Lena took off her ruined shirt. She flung it onto the floor, stomped on it.

"Zoey, kill her!" Lena said.

"Lena Fly!" Hailey's mother said.

Hailey's mother took quick steps toward Lena, wielding her Soynite dagger.

"Mother!" Hailey said. "I can't do it! I can't kill Lena, and I don't want her to die!"

Hailey's mother came close.

"It's okay, baby," she said. She pointed the dagger at Zoey's face. "Get back, Zoey."

"But—" Zoey started saying.

"Get back!" Hailey's mother said, aiming her dagger at a girl she had held when she was a baby. "If you don't, I will hurt you."

Zoey took several steps back while raising her hands.

Lena laughed.

"Lilly," Lena said. "You're the one who birthed all of these frustrating Majestics. Two of your children have been especially frustrating. I wish all four of them had gotten killed during the invasion, including your husband. Including you."

Hailey's mother grabbed Lena's neck. Holding onto the blind High, Hailey's mother advanced toward the throne. The back of Lena's legs hit it.

She sat.

Hailey's mother grabbed Lena's orange hair, yanked. The teenager yelped. Hailey's mother pressed the dagger's flat side against Lena's neck.

Zoey rubbed her arms with her hands.

Hailey fiddled with her fingers. Her father, maybe, wouldn't want his wife to spill Lena's blood.

"Lilly, please don't hurt her," she said.

"Lena, you're not going to hurt or kill any of my children!" Hailey's mother said. "Do you understand?!"

Lena laughed.

"Tell me you understand!" Hailey's mother said. "I'm not going to kill you, but I can torture you! You're not going to hurt any of my children. And you're not going to kill any of them. Tell me you understand!"

With a dagger against her neck, a burdened sigh shot out of the High.

"I understand," Lena said.

Hailey's mother took a step back. She turned, then went to stand beside her daughter.

Lena placed her hands against her knees, leaned forward. Her breaths left in short pants, the High alive and maybe not well.

Zoey approached Lena. She rubbed the bare skin between her bra and her blue jeans.

"It's okay, Lena," Zoey said.

While she rubbed Lena's back, she wore a Soynite pendant. Had Misty given it to her?

"Don't touch me!" Lena said. "You didn't kill Hailey!"

Zoey moved her hand. "I saved your life, Lena. Hailey was going to kill you, but I convinced her not to."

"She tried to kill me, she cut my arm, and she ruined my shirt," Lena said. "And you decided to let her live. You let that piece of Majestic trash live!"

Even if Zoey had tried murdering Hailey, the Majestic wouldn't have let it happen.

"My boy would've sliced you up, and he would've smiled while doing it," Hailey's mother said. "I'm more compassionate than my son."

Nick.

He hadn't let his mother go with him, and he hadn't decided to see Hailey again.

"I didn't know threatening to torture your High is compassion," Lena said. "If you ever see your husband again, I hope the two of you don't spawn more Majestics. There are enough of them infesting this universe."

"The future is uncertain, but I know what isn't," Hailey's mother said. "I will see my husband again. And you, Lena, will respect him. You will respect me, too. And you will respect Hailey. I've been away from her for way too long, but I'm with her again. She has her mother. What do you have?"

"Power," Lena said. "I have power and you don't. Go get stabbed by a Freeman, and tell all of your children to do the same. They don't deserve a mother. They don't deserve a father. My own father got murdered in this room today. He got killed in my throne room. But your foolish children have one who probably isn't dead. My parents are on Soy. But they're not walking on it."

Hailey's mother didn't scowl.

"Lena," Zoey said. "You should come with me. I can find you a shirt to wear."

The light glowed against Lena's black bra, pale skin, and the High's fallen cane. It had slammed against Hailey's leg yesterday, but it didn't hurt her now.

Lena stood, getting off her throne.

"I'm not going to forget what you two Majestics did to me today," Lena said.

When Lena and Zoey were gone, a hand caressed Hailey's cheek.

The two Majestics' hands didn't hold daggers. Hailey's blood, Lena's blood as well, stayed on the floor. Hailey had sliced Lena. Zoey had done the same to Hailey.

Soynite girls had spilled blood.

Freemans weren't in the throne room, but Soynites had bled.

Lock Tannis would rather see Hailey lose blood and her life. He wanted the same to happen to the Soynites opposing him, and one of those people was Nova.

"I'm sorry, Mother," Hailey said. "I didn't kill her."

"It's okay," Hailey's mother said. "I won't make you kill that girl. Everything is always going to turn out okay. I already have a plan. I'm going to use a tyrant to our advantage, and I'm going to give her what she needs."

Lena needed to become worthy, that was for sure.

"I can never replace Anne, but..." Hailey's mother said.

She put her hands on her hips, then the woman faced the throne.

"I can still make things right," Hailey's mother said. "I've committed awful acts, Hailey. I let my friend convince me that the Freemans were going to attack Soy, which they did, but that fear made me give up Nova. My first daughter. My second baby. I wonder what she looks like now. I hope Nova is okay, and I hope that Anne is, too. I gave Nova up for adoption. Anne was taken away from me, but I let her kidnapper keep her. I can have another child in the future, but I'm always going to want my Anne back. I think about your youngest sibling every single day, Hailey. I think about all of my four children daily. I also haven't forgotten your father."

Hailey remembered her father. No matter how many times someone slit her throat, she wouldn't forget Theo Majestic.

"He made Nova into a High," Hailey's mother said. "There always has to be a Majestic in power, Hailey. That's how it's supposed to be. In every generation of Highs, there has to be at least one Majestic. And every Supreme High has to be a Majestic. They have to be a descendant of Hase. And Lock Tannis owns the Red Throne, but he doesn't deserve to. A Majestic has to sit on it. Not Lock. It has to be a biological Majestic, too. You deserve to become the Freemans' ruler more than I do."

Hailey's mother wasn't a Pure, and she hadn't developed any Saves. The girl had a better chance at killing Lock than her mother did.

"I want to," Hailey said. "I don't know if that's going to happen, though."

Hailey's mother rubbed the girl's back. "We'll see."

The woman gestured to the blue throne. Because of the Freemans, six chairs weren't in a throne room within a blue palace. The Soynite palace was gone. Lena was gone from the room, and she couldn't see the chair she had chosen as her throne.

"Is that really Lena's throne?" Hailey's mother said.

"It's a tyrant's chair, yes," Hailey said.

Hailey's mother confronted the throne, and she placed her hand against the armrest's blue.

She sat.

The older Majestic sat on a throne that wasn't hers. Lena's. Still, Hailey had made the blind High bleed and her mother could do the same. Lena wouldn't hurt her because she had sat on her throne. She could try. If she did, she would fail.

Light glowed against the throne sitter's beautiful blonde hair.

"She's still blind because she's not worthy," Hailey's mother said. "She doesn't deserve to have a throne, but she will deserve it. She will."

"Mother, you don't know Lena like I do," Hailey said. "She won't change. And she's always going to be unfit to rule."

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"I'll make her fit," Hailey's mother said.

"I think we should leave Lena alone," Hailey said. "We can go back home, and Lena will stay here with Zoey and Betty. Plus, Betty is going to be angry. When she finds out what I did to Lena, she's going to be very mad. She might try to kill me."

Betty.

She could set Hailey on fire. Without touching her, she could slam Hailey's head against the throne room's high ceiling. She could teleport Hailey into the vacuum of outer space, an environment Hailey couldn't survive in.

Betty had all the Saves.

"And you were going to kill Lena, but you didn't," Hailey's mother said. "Lena isn't dead on the floor, but we both could've made that happen. But we didn't. Betty will find out that you spared Lena's life. Sure, you cut Lena, but you didn't kill her. She has to do her duty. No matter how big or small it is, Lena Fly has to do her duty. She's alive. She can do what she needs to do. So can I. Love is sweet, and it can make people change."

"Not if Lena is one of those people," Hailey said. "And she's going to yell at you, because you decided to sit on her throne."

Lena could yell. She had done it. The blind ruler could more than shout, but she couldn't see scowls on other people's faces. She hadn't seen the glares Hailey had worn.

"The ability to yell doesn't make anyone powerful," Hailey's mother said. "All it means is that you can yell."

Hailey remembered Zoey's scowl, her vicious anger.

The young Majestic had tried murdering Lena. She had made a Soynite bleed, one not supporting Lock Tannis. She had hurt one of her own Highs.

"Lena is intelligent," Hailey's mother said. "We can use that to our advantage. First, though, I'm going to hurt that blind tyrant. Let's wait for her to come back in here."

When Lena and Zoey returned, Hailey was seated cross-legged near a wall. She stood.

Lena wore a black shirt. She was still dressed in her blue jeans, which Hailey hadn't torn. As she walked beside Lena, Zoey still wore her purple shirt and purple jeans. Unlike her sightless sister, she didn't glare.

"Lilly Majestic!" Lena said, clenching her fists. "Have you forgotten what you and your daughter have done to me today?! Because I haven't! And I'm going to kill you! I'm going to beat you to death with my bare hands! You made me agree to not hurt or kill your children! But you're fair game!"

Hailey's mother scowled.

"Where are you, Lilly?!" Lena said.

"I'm sitting on your throne!" Hailey's mother said. She stood, advanced toward Lena. "And now I'm walking toward you!"

Lena moved toward Hailey's mother. Zoey walked next to her sister.

Hailey stayed near the wall as she walked.

"Lena, please stop," Zoey said. She rubbed her arms with her hands. "Don't even try to kill them. They'll beat you."

"Be quiet, Zoey!" Lena said.

When Hailey's mother was close enough, she grabbed Lena's neck. She punched the High in the stomach. Three times.

"You're getting beaten in your own throne room!" Hailey's mother said. She shoved Lena. "And I'm going to get rid of something of yours!"

Hailey's mother planned on taking Lena's life?

"You're going to kill her?!" Zoey said.

"Mother, I thought we were going to let her live!" Hailey said, standing near a wall.

Hailey's mother dodged pale fists.

Screaming, Lena continued her attempt to beat Hailey's loving mother to death.

"You Theo-loving piece of trash!" Lena said.

Hailey's mother rushed past her daughter, then bent over. She wrapped her fingers around a cane's length. She stood.

Armed with Lena's cane, Hailey's mother turned toward the blind High.

"Hailey Majestic!" Hailey's mother said. "She's the girl you hurt! You hurt my daughter! Say it!"

"I hurt your daughter!" Lena said. She glared, as if Hailey's mother were a Freeman warrior. "And I'm going to hurt you! I'm going to kill you!"

She charged.

So did Hailey's mother.

Lena came close to the woman, but she struck the girl's leg. She hollered. Hailey's mother had put the cane to good use.

"You're hurting her!" Zoey said.

Lena staggered back.

"I hit you with your own cane, Lena!" Hailey's mother said. "It didn't just hit a thirteen-year-old girl! It hit a sixteen-year-old tyrant! You hurt my child, Lena. I had four of them, and I nurtured them with my breasts, and I always wanted them to be safe and happy."

Hailey, Nick, Nova, and Anne had drunk milk from their mother's breasts. Anne, the last child Hailey's mother had breastfed, was gone. Hailey assumed the Lock Tannis Church had her. If Summer belonged to that cult, and if Anne was still with that baby snatcher, it wouldn't be foolish for Hailey to believe her youngest sibling praised and worshipped Lock Tannis.

"You failed at that, Theo lover," Lena said. She smiled. "And one of your children is with the Lock Tannis Church. Have fun with trying to get that youngest Majestic back, you failure of a mother. If I were you, I wouldn't have stopped trying to get Anne back. I would've done everything in my power to get my baby back. But you're not me. You're not great."

She lunged.

Hailey's mother used her foot to make Lena crash onto the floor. She groaned. Her attacker kicked her.

"Stop it!" Zoey said. She took a step forward.

"Stay back, Zoey!" Hailey's mother said. "If you don't, I'll hurt you, too!"

"You Theo-loving piece of trash," Lena said. She held her side. Her breath trembled. "If I had my sight, you would be the one on the floor. Not me."

She moved onto her unharmed side. Hailey's mother slammed her foot against her back. Lena yelped.

Hailey nodded, as if her mother had asked her if she liked what she had done to the hurting High. Clad in dark clothes, Lilly Majestic aimed her blue eyes at the fallen ruler.

She was wonderful.

"This is going to hurt," Hailey's mother said.

Lena, blind and on the floor, was at the woman's mercy. The girl couldn't hurt Hailey. And the blonde's mother could beat her. She could take Lena's life.

Hailey's mother raised the cane.

"No!" Zoey said. She clutched her hair, but the gesture wouldn't save her sister from pain or death.

Hailey's mother used the cane on Lena, utilizing it as a weapon. Lena screamed. She moved a hand to her thigh.

"I'm going to get rid of something of yours," Hailey's mother said. "When I said that, I meant it."

Lena pressed her hands against the floor. She moved them against blue as her belly stayed against the floor.

Hailey's mother put a foot on Lena's back. The girl stopped trying to escape.

"Lena Fly!" Hailey's mother said. "That's your name, right?!"

"Yes!" Lena said.

"Not anymore," Hailey's mother said. Your name is Lena Majestic! Say it!"

"Lena Fly!" Lena said.

Hailey's mother stomped Lena's back. She gave the High what she deserved. Pain. Hailey's mother had penetrated the girl with it. After what she had done, Lena had to take in more pain. She needed to.

Hailey and her mother were wedded in their dislike for Lena.

The woman had stomped on Lena's back.

"Stop!" Zoey said as her sister screamed. "She's had enough! She's had enough!"

"Lena Majestic!" Hailey's mother said. "Say your name!"

"Lena Fly!" Lena said.

Hailey's mother raised the cane.

"If you don't say your real name, I'm going to bash your head in!" Hailey's mother said. "You have one last chance to tell me your real name! Say it! If you don't, there's going to be a High's brain matter on this cane! What's your name?!"

"Lena Majestic!" Lena said. "My name is Lena Majestic!"

As if she had searched for a reason to keep breathing and didn't find it, Lena gasped several times. She did it with a Freeman laser beam's vicious force, as if being a Majestic were almost as horrible as being trapped in a room with Lock Tannis.

"Call me Mother!" Hailey's mother said.

"Mother," Lena said, submitting.

"Your name is Lena Majestic!" Hailey's mother said. "And I'm your mother! You are my fifth child!"

Hailey's mother dropped the cane.

"I hurt you," she said. The woman kneeled beside Lena, flipped her onto her back. She wiped away the liquid on the girl's pale face. "I'm going to heal you."

The older Majestic had beaten the younger one into submission.

"Let's get your shirt off," Hailey's mother said. She removed Lena's shirt. "And these pants have to get out of the way."

Hailey's mother unbuttoned Lena's blue jeans, unzipped them. She moved them to expose pale thighs and pink panties.

As for Hailey, she saw more of Lena than she wanted to.

Hailey's mother pulled a healing glass square from her pocket. She placed it on the spots she had attacked, healing Lena.

Lena stood.

On her knees, Hailey's mother watched as the blind High removed her shoes and socks. Lena took off her pants.

"What are you doing?" Hailey said.

"Getting naked," Lena said. "Can't you see? I thought I was the only blind one here."

She removed her panties, did the same to her bra, and she even took off her pendant. She placed it on the pile of clothes.

The naked High moved her hair away from her breasts. The light glowed against them, her pink nipples, and her orange pubic hair.

"Hopefully, all of you are going to leave my throne room now," Lena said.

Hailey, her mother, and Zoey moved toward the room's front, ready to go into a different part of the space station.

Hailey couldn't see her do it, but Lena sat on the throne. Naked. Royal, naked, barefoot, she sat on a chair Hailey had never used.

Lena's plan had worked.

She hadn't had the power to defeat Hailey's mother, but she had the power to strip. And she had disgusted three other Soynites on purpose, so they could leave her alone.

In the hall outside the throne room, Hailey's mother said, "We'll wait for Lena to come out."

When Lena stepped into the hall, holding her cane, she was dressed. Her Soynite pendant showed.

"You could've just told us to leave, Lena," Hailey said. "I saw things I didn't want to see."

As if she had been alone in her room, Lena had stripped. Hailey, her mother, and Zoey had seen her nudity. Lena hadn't seen it. She saw nothing. Because she wasn't worthy.

Even though Hailey hadn't killed her, maybe Lena never would be worthy.

"That wasn't the first time I saw a Majestic naked," Hailey's mother said. She put a hand on Lena's shoulder. "Don't forget. Your name is Lena Majestic now. And I'm your mother."

Lena didn't move the hand Hailey's mother kept on her shoulder.

"Okay, Mother," she said, her voice thick with spite.

"You were going to beat her to death with the cane, Lilly," Zoey said.

Lena had given Hailey the opportunity to bash her head with the white cane. Hailey's mother had been granted that chance as well, but Lena hadn't given her permission to. The older Majestic armed herself with a tyrant's cane. She had dropped it. Her fierce desire to make Lena's heart stop had fallen.

"I wasn't going to kill her," Hailey's mother said. She moved her hand off Lena's shoulder. "This blind tyrant is a Majestic now. My fifth child. Lena, you're going to come with me and Hailey. We're not going to hurt you. And we're going to see Theo Majestic, your new father. One day."

Lena furrowed her brow. She smirked.

"Okay," she said. "Okay. I'm fine with that. I'm going to make him kneel for me."

The girl had become a Majestic, but her hatred for Theo Majestic, her new father, stuck. Convincing Lena to stop despising her adoptive father would be as hard as a good Soynite trying to convince a Freeman's bellma to not attack them.

Lena walked. She swung her cane from side to side as she did so.

"I have to go Betty," Lena said. "She's unconscious because of you, you Theo lover."

Hailey, her mother, and Zoey went with Lena. The four Soynites found Betty in her bedroom, and Hailey spotted the band-aid on her neck.

Betty was on her back. Her green eyes were shut. Underneath her head was a blue pillow. It was the one Hailey sat near earlier, before she had tried murdering Lena in the throne room.

"I put the band-aid on her," Zoey said. "And I put her pillow under her head."

Before Lena and Zoey had returned to the throne room, they had gone into Betty's room.

Lena moved onto her knees, placed the cane on the floor. She reached out. Her hands met Betty's stomach. She moved her left hand along the unconscious Watcher's body, touched a breast. She found the woman's neck, then her face. Lena kissed Betty's lips.

She grabbed her cane, stood.

"My Watcher can't talk to me," she said. "And I'm in the company of two pieces of Majestic trash. Still, I'm a Majestic now. But that doesn't mean I'll be nice."

Lena faced Hailey's mother.

She had been a Fly when Hailey tried killing her. As Lena stood in Betty's room, she was a Majestic.

"Mother, I'm never going to stop wishing for a Freeman to kill you," Lena said. "You beat me in my own throne room, and you beat me with my own cane. I'm never going to forget that."

"You can remember it because you're alive," Hailey's mother said. "I could've killed you, but I didn't."

"I'm extremely grateful that someone as great as you spared my life," Lena said, wielding sarcasm. "You are so wonderful, Mother."

Hailey's mother had been intent on seeing Lena stop breathing, but Hailey had made it known she didn't want Lena to die.

The woman had spared Lena's life. She had beaten her, but she hadn't bashed her skull. Hailey's mother was wonderful.

"In the future, you're going to actually think that I'm wonderful," Hailey's mother said. She looked at Zoey. "I missed you, Zoey. I held you when you were a baby. I wish that our reunion happened a different way. I'm sorry that I hurt your sister, my new child. But I had to do it."

Zoey bowed her head. She lifted it, then looked at Lena.

"Lena, I'm going to stay with Betty," Zoey said. "I'm going to leave tomorrow. I'll go to Soy. Hailey said that I should go there, and I really want to. It's still my planet. Even though it is a wasteland."

"Then you're going to go back to Betty, right?" Lena said.

"I have to find my birth parents," Zoey said. "My mother said that I have to. Plus, I've been away from them for way too long. I need to find Archer and Holly. But I'll be here when Betty wakes up, and I'll tell her what happened."

"You better," Lena said.

She extended her free hand. Zoey took it. Lena kissed Zoey's lips.

"Find your birth parents," Lena said. She released Zoey's hand. She dropped the cane, hugged Zoey. She embraced the High back. "We're always going to be sisters."

"I know," Zoey said.

The hug broke.

Then Zoey embraced Hailey's mother, and the woman hugged the girl back.

"Don't hurt Lena," Zoey said. "Please."

Lena grabbed her cane.

"I won't," Hailey's mother said. She and Zoey stopped hugging. "I have five children I have to take care of, and I will. Your parents are good people, Zoey. Find them. Love them. When you find them, my friends will have their daughter back."

Zoey put a hand on the woman's arm. She moved past her, and went into the hall outside the room. Lena left as well.

"You adopted her," Hailey said.

"Lena needs parents, Hailey," Hailey's mother said, conversing with her daughter as Betty remained unconscious on the floor. "I let Summer keep one of my children, but no one is going to take my new one away from me. I'm going to protect Lena Majestic."

Hailey fiddled with her fingers.

She didn't try convincing her mother to disown the adopted Lena. Lilly Majestic had lost one child because someone had taken her, and the blonde woman deserved to have another one. Even though the new Majestic was Lena.

With no shame, Lena had bared her body to two Majestics and an Endman. Lena had yelled at Hailey with no shame. She had hurt her with no shame. Her attempt to murder Hailey's mother with her bare hands had failed.

Hailey appreciated that.

"I failed Anne," Hailey's mother said. "I'm not going to fail Lena."

The blind High had become Lena Majestic, Lilly Majestic's fifth child. Had the woman made the right choice?

"Raising Lena is going to be very hard," Hailey said. "And she's not worthy."

"She's going to be worthy to me," Hailey's mother said.

"She's going to give you a tough time," Hailey said.

Lena had dropped chaos and frustration into Hailey's life. She had done the same to other Majestics. Hailey knew.

"I've gone through tough times, but I'm still here," Hailey's mother said. She held her daughter's face, then kissed her forehead. "So are you. We have Lena. And we're going to get your other siblings back. Father will be with us again, too. Don't give up hope. Never do that. We're going to put this family back together, and one of Hase Majestic's descendants will kill Lock Tannis."

Hailey's mother had given Nova up for adoption, and she had adopted Lena. The High wasn't a descendant of Hase. But she was a Majestic. She was a new child of Hailey's mother, and that meant the thirteen-year-old in the room was Lena's younger sister.

As much as Lena hurled spite at it, the fact was that she had become Hailey's sibling. Her adoptive sibling.

Sisters. They were sisters.

"I'm going to see Zoey," Hailey said.

She found Zoey in her bedroom. Brown-haired and brown-eyed, she stood close to her bed, holding a blue backpack as its bottom touched the blue comforter.

The blue ceiling above was shorter than the one in Lena's throne room. Underneath it were two heads, and each one didn't bleed. Hailey was safe. So was Zoey.

Taped to the wall was a photograph displaying Boris Endman and Zoey when she was a baby.

Zoey's friend Hero had given her that picture.

"Zoey, I'm sorry for what I tried to do to Lena," Hailey said.

"You and your mother are vicious people," Zoey said. "Your mother is even worse. Still, you and her aren't too far gone. I forgive you. I forgive both of you. Soy is gone. But our compassion doesn't have to be."

Lena's lack of compassion for Nova had made Hailey try killing her. She hadn't succeeded.

Hailey's mother, Lena's new mother, had beaten the blind ruler in a throne room. She hadn't failed to adopt Lena. The gray-eyed girl hadn't died. Not yet.

"I kissed Lena," Zoey said. "I love her. In the platonic sense, of course. But there's someone I want, and I don't want to be his sister. It would be nice if me and him were more than friends. I have to see Hero, and I have to see his siblings. They're my friends."

"Find your family and your friends," Hailey said. "Be safe, too."

Zoey faced her. "Thanks, Hailey. Me and you will see each other again. Remember this. Not all Soynites are good, but you don't have to be one of the bad ones."

Zoey hugged Hailey, and she embraced her back. The hug ended.

"Help our sister become a better person, Hailey," Zoey said. "Please."

Hailey nodded. "I will."

Someday Lena might be as great as Hailey's father.

"A good leader knows when to show mercy," Zoey said. "And that's what you showed Lena. You deserve to have people kneeling for you, Hailey. And someone will. Very soon, too."

Zoey kneeled before bowing her head. Hailey stood in front of her. She wasn't a High, but Zoey kneeled for her anyway.