Hero Shame was no High.

But he had become the boyfriend of a former High's granddaughter.

Hero had met one out of six Highs. The attempt to kidnap the youngest High, Jill, had failed. She was a Pure. Hero and the other Exchangers needed to take nine Pures.

Lena Majestic.

Zoey had been in a throne room when Lena became Theo Majestic's fifth child. Regardless, Lena wasn't a Pure. The Exchangers had no need to hunt her down and take her to Heaven.

Plus, Lena's blindness prevented her from being a good soldier. Heaven's people needed Pures who could become great warriors. Even if Lena had been born as a Pure, the truth was that she was blind and her powers were gone.

Jill Key. Hero and his siblings hadn't succeeded in taking her. Hailey's Watcher had become a problem. The Exchangers' problem.

Cape Majestic.

Nova Majestic.

Aris Upside.

Path Seekman.

Those four Highs weren't Pures. Zoey had informed Hero they weren't.

She was a former High's grandchild, a current High's sister, and a kidnapping victim. She was a friend. A fighter. A lover.

Betty Fly. She was Lena's Watcher, a woman with all the Saves. She had never been a Pure. Yet the Watcher had touched water on planet Still, and it had granted her power. Much power.

A Pure was not what Betty was. Heaven's people didn't want her as a warrior. They didn't want Hero as a fighter, either. No, he was an Exchanger, a person meant to kidnap Pures and give them to Heaven's people.

Hero and Zoey sat on the bed, their sock-clad feet touching the blue comforter.

They wore different clothes than the ones they had donned earlier. The teenagers wore their Soynite pendants, though.

In a crater, they had done something wonderful.

The Exchanger named Hero had found Boris Endman's granddaughter, but he had discovered the former High had betrayed his people. Joseph Key had informed him about it.

Was Hero fortunate?

He had wished to fly with Boris Endman. Instead of that happening, Hero had carried the dead man's granddaughter while flying. They had been on Earth when it occurred for the first time.

Hero and Zoey were on Soy.

The Exchangers had treated getting far from Vera as being almost as important as making Lock Tannis bleed.

Lock was a former friend of Zoey's grandfather. Hero hadn't met either of those two men, but he had found Zoey in a Freeman base. On the day they met, Hero hadn't expected he would see her naked.

If Boris Endman gained a great-grandchild, he would never meet them.

"I still hope you find your father, Hero," Zoey said.

Mitch Shame.

A photograph showing the man stayed taped to the bedroom wall. As for the actual Mitch, he had become the Freemans' prisoner.

Maybe a Freeman had sliced off his head.

Would a Bloodhound lead the Exchangers to their father's corpse?

Regardless, if Hero's father was dead, the Exchangers would still be able to live on Heaven if they gave nine more Pures to its people.

Mitch Shame was Hero's second father. His first father, the man who had granted Hero his original surname, was as deceased as former High Boris.

Hero's birth father was dead.

Zoey's birth father, Archer Endman, was alive, Hero assumed.

Had Archer learned the truth? Had he discovered a woman named Misty had kidnapped his daughter?

Archer had a daughter, one with a pendant and a liking for a Pure kidnapper.

Inside the room Hero was in now, he had written on a notepad's thin page. It had led to him realizing Zoey All and Alice Endman were the same girl. They had always been the same fantastic person.

For too long, Zoey hadn't known she had been born as Alice Endman.

Hero had made Misty reveal the truth.

As cruel as Misty had been to Zoey, the woman had given the girl her pendant. With that object on her side, Zoey had proof she was the daughter of Archer and Holly. Their true daughter.

Misty had raised Zoey, but the woman had tainted the sweet girl's childhood with stinging slaps.

She had kept Zoey from Archer and Holly. Her birth parents. They were two people who had failed to prevent their only child's abduction.

Zoey hadn't murdered Misty. She hadn't done to her kidnapper what Sepsis Nail had done to his father.

Like Sepsis had been, Hero and Zoey were older siblings. Sepsis and Griffin Nail had been biological brothers. But Hero and Zoey had no biological siblings. And the girl had been away from her relatives for sixteen years. Misty, a baby taker, had made sure of that.

Misty's friend Crammer was dead. The former Child of Still cultist had met Misty and Zoey inside a Freeman space station, the same one where the girl had freed a man named Zodiac Angel. He had attacked Crammer.

The former Child of Still, like many other Soynites, had breathed for the last time.

"I have you," Hero said. "And I have the others, my brothers and sisters. But there's one person who isn't with us. My father. And it's disappointing because I really want you to meet him."

Hero's father had heard about Alice Endman, but he had never met her.

Zoey All, Boris Endman's granddaughter, lived with the Exchangers. She resided in a spaceship Hero's father had walked inside many times before, but the man wasn't there. Not anymore.

It was the Exchangers' duty to reunite with their father. Even if life had drained from the man, Hero and his siblings had to find him. They needed to see what had happened to him, their sole parent, the adult they loved the most.

"It's also disappointing because your father doesn't deserve to be with the Freemans," Zoey said. She put a hand on Hero's arm, then rubbed it. "He deserves to be with you. When I was invisible and stalking you and the others, I wish your father had been there, too. Unfortunately, he wasn't there. There were Freemans, though. So many Freemans. We didn't find any Soynites, but I wish we did."

Inside that Freeman base, Zoey hadn't found any Soynites she hadn't seen outside the place.

There, in a prison wing, the Exchangers had found Able Brick. Their first victim.

Zoey didn't know. She hadn't learned what Hero and his brothers and sisters had done to a Soynite in Washington.

Fantastic.

"There might be Freemans on this planet," Zoey said. "There was one on planet Still. Betty told me. A Freeman saw her and Lena together, but he escaped before Betty could kill him. If Freemans can go to Still, they can definitely go to Soy. This planet."

"So can Soynites," Hero said. The comforter stayed soft underneath him. Freemans remained away from the spaceship, the Exchangers' home. Their only residence. "We're here, and I think other Soynites are here, too. At least one. Since not every Soynite is horrible, that means we might meet a good one. A fantastic one."

Hero had met a fantastic Soynite in Washington.

Zoey.

Hero had met that great girl and his father didn't know it, and there was a possibility the man was dead and he would never meet Zoey.

"I met a fantastic Soynite inside a Freeman base," Hero said. He stroked Zoey's hair. "She has brown hair. She has brown eyes, too. I used to admire her grandfather, and then I learned that he betrayed his people."

"You don't like Boris," Zoey said. "Do you like his granddaughter?"

"She's not awful, that's for sure."

Hero kissed Zoey's hair, and then he left the bed. He approached the window. When he placed his hand against the blue wall, he looked at Sydney Shame.

The youngest Exchanger stood outside, accompanied by no one.

Her back faced the spaceship. She stood with her thin arms crossed, the girl doing so as he watched white clouds drift in the blue sky. A gust made her blonde hair ripple.

Hero had held Sydney when she was a baby, and now he watched her stand on Soy's ruined land.

"Sydney is outside," Hero said. "She wants to be alone, as usual."

"I'm worried about her," Zoey said. "What happened while I was gone? When we were all on Earth, Sydney was a lot happier."

Vera, with vicious brutality, had interacted with Sydney. That was what had happened.

The Exchangers had wanted Jill. They had craved the young High, and it had been their goal to take her to Heaven. But they hadn't expected Jill's Bloodhound friend to make an appearance.

Vera's dagger had stabbed into Sydney, and the kid acted as if the weapon had cut off her ability to smile.

Underneath Sydney's shoes was the ground, gray and as lifeless as Boris Endman.

Despite what Misty believed, that former High's heart had stopped.

Years ago, Boris had dueled Theo Majestic on barren land. Sydney stood on Soy's surface, and Hailey's father had done the same. Boris had, too. He hadn't succeeded in murdering Theo.

Theo's absence was real.

Boris was dead.

If the High named Jill hadn't convinced Vera to spare the Exchangers' lives, Hero would be dead.

Jill Key.

Was she the only remaining Pure? If she was, if Jill was the only Pure with a beating heart, Hero and his siblings would have to make a second attempt to take her.

Taking nine more Pures would lead to the Exchangers finding their lost father. Alive or dead, Mitch Shame needed to be found.

"Zoey, do you know any Pures?" Hero said. "Jill is one. Theo is one, too. But there must be other Pures, ones we can find. I need to know if you know any."

He moved his hand off the wall. He turned.

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Zoey stayed on the bed, looking at Hero with her brown eyes, which had seen him in Washington, Hawaii, and that crater.

"I don't know where Theo is," Zoey said. "Jill is in Hawaii. You said it yourself."

"I know," Hero said. "But I can't go back to Jill, and Theo is missing. I want to meet a different Pure. I need to. Do you know where I can find one?"

Zoey rubbed her arms with her hands.

"A space station," she said. "But you're going to be disappointed. I'm sorry, Hero."

Having to live while there was a chance his father resided inside a gray prison cell disappointed Hero. He had frowned. He had done it many times, because Freemans had captured his father, because Lock Tannis had caused Soy's ruin, because of other reasons.

Zoey was sorry.

"For what?" Hero said.

"I can't take you to the space station," Zoey said. "I can't take you to Hailey, because I've never been in her home."

"Hailey is a Pure?" Hero said. "Hailey Majestic, Theo's daughter, is a Pure?"

"Yes." Zoey said.

Hailey Majestic.

A Pure. If good fortune was with Hero, Hailey would become one of the nine Pures he needed to deliver to Heaven.

"She lived at Betty's space station," Hero said. "Do you think she would go back there?"

"She might," Zoey said. "You and the others will like Betty. We can go see her, actually. She's nice and she's good. Really good."

"She can read minds," Hero said.

If Betty read any of the Exchangers' minds, she might discover what they were. Hero, a Pure kidnapper, would love to kidnap the Pure named Hailey Majestic.

Betty might kill Hero if she discovered his plan.

"Right," Zoey said. "Betty is a telepath. She has all of the Saves."

"We can't see her," Hero said. He looked away. "We have other business to attend to."

The Exchangers couldn't take Hailey. Not yet, at least. But they would. Hero wouldn't die if Hailey didn't become his second kidnapping victim. There would be time to take Hailey in the future.

Zoey. She had told Hero the truth, one filled with importance.

"I love you, Zoey," Hero said.

He sat beside Zoey on the bed. Her hand caressed his blond hair.

"I love you, too," Zoey said. "You're going to find the people you want to find. You found me, after all. And you made my mother tell the truth. Thanks to you, I know who I am. And I'm never going to forget what we did in that crater. I don't want to."

She put her hands on Hero's cheeks, then kissed him. Zoey could do that. She wasn't among her birth parents, but she could give Hero a sweet kiss. A precious one.

Before joining Zoey on the bed, Hero had watched his youngest sister stand outside.

Sydney.

She had always been a Shame. Hero's love for her and their father hadn't faded. Sydney, Mitch Shame's only biological child, had stepped away from the spaceship's comfort.

Hero needed to tell Sydney and their siblings what Hailey was.

Theo Majestic wanted to kill Lock Tannis, and Lock Tannis wanted to kill Theo Majestic. Hailey and her father shared the same desire. Thanks to Zoey, Hero had learned about something else Hailey and Theo had in common.

Like her father, Hailey was a Pure.

Zoey had confirmed it. She knew what Hailey was, but she was ignorant to the reason why Hero was interested in finding a Pure. Zoey's love for the Exchanger was true. Maybe she would hate Hero if she learned about his mission, but Zoey didn't hate him now. That was important.

Hero had helped Zoey survive.

Inside a Freeman base in Washington, Zoey had saved Hero from a Freeman.

"In almost a year, there might be a baby with us," Zoey said. She pressed her hand against her stomach.

"If you have one, it should have your last name," Hero said. "The Endman surname is more important than mine."

"Your obsession with my birth family will never go away, will it?"

Hero's obsessions.

His desire to find his father was as strong as his love for Zoey. Hero, like his fellow Exchangers, was obsessed with finding his only parent.

And Hero's urge to fly alongside Boris Endman had faded. The former High had sided with Lock Tannis, after all. Still, Hero had found Boris's granddaughter. And maybe his future son or future daughter would have Boris as an ancestor.

"I'm also obsessed with finding my father," Hero said. "You should be with your own father, by the way. I'm sorry that he isn't here. Archer, I mean."

Zoey leaned against Hero.

"Archer is the only father I have left," she said. "I have my birth father, and Lena has her adoptive father. She hates Theo Majestic. And he's gone. No one knows where he is, but I hope he gets back to his family. When I was a baby, he held me. Lilly told me. For so long, I didn't even know I had already met Theo. I love him. And even though his daughter tried to kill my sister, I love her anyway. I love Hailey."

"She tried to kill Lena, but you still care about her," Hero said. "You really are a good person. Stay that way, please."

Zoey looked at the window's glass. Less than a week ago, she had looked past it and trained her eyes on Betty. Her former stepsister's Watcher. Betty, who knew a Pure named Hailey.

Hero had heard about Lena.

What he had been told had given him the impression Lena was a girl with an obsessive love for power. A tyrant.

Hero would rather not kneel for any High.

He hadn't moved onto his knees in Jill's presence. Sydney hadn't kneeled for her.

Zoey had kneeled for Lena, but the Exchangers never would. The blind High, a tyrant with no vision, might hurl anger-shrouded words at Hero if he refused to kneel for her. But Lena wasn't with him. No, Hero was with her sister.

"Ultimately, I'm no one special," Zoey said. "Lena is the special one. She's a High, and I'm just a former High's granddaughter. That's all I'll ever be."

If Lena became half as humble as Zoey, maybe she would be worthy to planet Still.

Zoey had told Hero about how her younger sister had become sightless and Saveless.

Lena owned a pair of round sunglasses, a white cane, and her eyes were pale gray. Even her pupils were that color. If planet Still viewed Lena as worthy, her blind eyes would work again, her pupils would become their natural black, and her pale gray eyes would turn green.

Long hair was against Hero's shirt, brown touching white. Then Zoey leaned away. Still, she wasn't far from Hero. She and Hero's distant father weren't the same person.

"I wish I could've reunited with Boris," Zoey said. "I want to find out why he did what he did. Why did he join Lock Tannis? I wish I could ask Boris that, and I want to know what happened to him. How did he die? I don't know. We don't know. I found out who I am, but I never found out how Boris died. I don't even know if his son, my birth father, is alive. My mother told me to find my birth parents. I didn't find them. But I found you. We both have to see Archer and Holly, because we're together now. Me and you. Me, you, and your brothers and sisters."

Zoey was still the only child of Archer and Holly, Hero assumed.

The last Soynite birth. Had that been Jill's?

Did Hero and Zoey live in a universe where no Soynite was younger than eleven?

Mitch's daughter and Boris's granddaughter were in a blue room together, sitting on a big bed. Theo Majestic, who had made ordinary Soynites into Highs, didn't stand or sit in the room. He was absent. His former friend Boris wasn't present, either. He was dead.

"I'm glad Wade didn't kill me the day I met him," Zoey said. She touched Hero's arm. "If he did, I never would've kissed you. I never would've found out that I'm Alice Endman. In that Freeman base, your siblings wanted to kill me. And they wanted to kill me when we were in this room. Macy, Everett, and Kat wanted me to die. They wanted to kill me. You didn't want that to happen to me, though. Neither did Sydney. You and her defended me when the others didn't want to. My mother hurt me, and Crammer wasn't always gentle with me. You never hurt me, though. You saved me. Thank you."

Hero had become Zoey's hero.

But no one had stopped Misty from kidnapping her. No one had saved the sweet Sydney from being tortured by Vera. No one had killed Lock Tannis before the invasion's unwelcome advent.

Hero looked at Zoey's pendant. He stroked it with his thumb.

"Archer and Holly are better people than me," he said. "They won't hurt you. If they do, it won't be on purpose. And Holly isn't Misty. She'll be a good mother to you. She already is, actually. You and her are far from each other, but she's still your mother. She wants you. Misty took you away from her, but I really do want you to see your mother again, Zoey. Holly didn't raise you. But she brought you into this universe, and she misses you. I don't doubt that. You don't remember your mother. Just like how Sydney doesn't remember hers. But Holly is real, and so is your father Archer. They love you."

Archer and Holly had spent one month with Zoey. Hero had met her a few days ago, and her parents had first seen her sixteen years ago. But Zoey was with Hero. She wasn't with Archer and Holly. Her parents.

"And I love you," Hero said. He put a hand on Zoey's back, rubbed it. "You're going to see Archer and Holly, and they're going to see your pendant. They'll know that you're their daughter. You're Alice Endman. Archer and Holly will know that you are. Misty did a great thing when she gave you your pendant."

"My mother wants to kill a dead man," Zoey said. "She wants to kill my grandfather, but you can't get rid of a person who's already dead. My mother thinks Boris is still alive."

As Zoey sat next to Hero on a bed, maybe Misty hunted Boris, a dead former High.

"What about you?" Hero said. "What do you think?"

"I think my mother believes something that isn't true," Zoey said. "Boris Endman is dead. The Freeman we saw outside that Freeman base didn't know we were there. He had no reason to lie about Boris being dead. I don't want to talk about a dumb theory, but it's possible that Boris is alive. But I don't believe it. If Boris is alive, maybe the Freemans don't know about it. Maybe Lock Tannis fought him. Maybe he didn't kill Boris. The Freemans might think that he's dead, but Lock Tannis could have lied about killing him. He lied to them about being a Freeman, after all. He could lie to them about being Boris Endman's killer. I doubt my grandfather is alive, though."

Hero nodded.

"He's dead," he said. "And anyone could've killed Boris, not just Lock. Maybe Sydney killed him and she didn't tell us."

A joke.

Boris couldn't make any.

Whether Boris was dead or alive, Misty stayed gone. She didn't destroy her belief that Boris lived.

"Maybe," Zoey said. "Either way, we can't be one-hundred percent sure that Boris is dead. But that doesn't mean we should believe that he's still alive. He's gone. He's dead and we can't do anything about it. Do you remember when I told my mother that Boris is dead? She got all upset, and Crammer didn't let me comfort her. I remember. She thought that Boris really died. She doesn't think that anymore. No, she wants to kill him, and she plans on making that happen. My mother is only disappointing herself. She can't kill my grandfather. She'll never be able to."

Misty had raised Zoey, but the girl had never been her biological daughter. She never would be.

Zoey was with Hero. She was inside a parked spaceship, home to six Exchangers and Boris Endman's granddaughter.

As for Sydney, her time in Jill's basement had made her don more frowns than smiles.

Despite their father's absence, the Exchangers needed a break.

"Hero," Wade said.

The tallest Exchanger stood near the open door. He pointed to the window, which Hero had used to look at his youngest sibling.

"Do you want me to fetch Sydney?" Wade said.

"No," Hero said. "She wants to be alone. Let her. She needs a break, Wade. We all do."

Zoey gave a small wave.

"Hello, Wade," she said.

"Hello, Zoey," Wade said.

He hadn't been in the bedroom when Macy, Everett, and Kat planned on murdering Zoey. His brothers and sisters had left him inside a Freeman base, but they had returned to it. They had been intent on finding their brutal brother.

Wade had found them.

He had gained the power to teleport, and that ability was in him.

"I need your opinion," Zoey said. "Do you think Boris Endman is still alive?"

"Whatever he is, I hope he's dead," Wade said.

He went near the window, then put his hand on the wall. Hero and Zoey left the bed. Their bed. Years ago, Hero hadn't expected he would share a bed with Boris Endman's granddaughter.

"Sydney didn't deserve what happened to her," Wade said. He clenched his fists. "We can't let something bad happen to her again. Do you hear me, Hero?"

It was Sydney's right to be the Exchanger to reunite with their father if the others couldn't. She was the youngest Shame. She was her father's only biological child.

"I hear you," Hero said.

"I hear you, too," Zoey said. Between her and Hero was the bed. "Wade, when your siblings wanted to kill me, Sydney didn't. I don't want anything bad to happen to her. I like her."

Wade turned. With his back facing the wall, he looked at Zoey.

"I know you do," he said. "But liking someone doesn't mean that you'll always be able to protect them."

Hero had hugged his father more than once, but his love for the man hadn't stopped Freemans from capturing him.

"Sydney will stay safe," Hero said. "We found some trouble in Hawaii, and we suffered through it. But we're okay now. So is Sydney. Well, she's safe, at least. She's alive. There's still a chance that she'll be there when we reunite with Father. That's good. Sydney deserves to be the last of our siblings, Wade. She's our youngest sister, and she's Father's only biological child. Before he knew us, Father knew Sydney. There was a massacre at the Ascend Museum, but at least we found a new family. Sydney was there. She was a lot younger than she is now. She's eleven, and she's ruined, but she has to get better. She has to. I know that Sydney doesn't believe we'll find Father again, but I believe it. We're going to get him back. We have to."

"I'm not going to let our father die inside a Freeman prison cell," Wade said.

A picture of Mitch Shame was taped to the bedroom wall, but where was the actual man?

"He's not going to," Hero said. "We're going to find him, brother. We're going to get a Bloodhound to help us. They're going to lead us to our father and everything will be okay again. We just have to do what we have to do."

The mission.

The Exchangers' mission, it was real.

Hero himself had stuck a needle into Able Brick's neck, then injected purple liquid into him. Vamp had coursed through the Pure's bloodstream. Without putting up a good fight, Able had lost consciousness.

Able Brick. The Exchangers' first victim.

Hero didn't know which Pure would become his tenth victim, but there was a chance Hailey would become that person.

Theo Majestic, the former High maker, had one son and four daughters. One of his girls was what he was.

A Pure.

The Exchangers had taken one Pure. They needed to take nine more.

In exchange for the Exchangers' help, Heaven's people would make a Bloodhound assist them. That Bloodhound would lead Hero and his siblings to their father, a missing man. A good man.

Hero's father didn't have to find and kidnap nine Pures. It wasn't his duty. His sons and daughters had to meet and take Pures, and their other plan involved convincing Heaven's people to let Zoey reside with them on Heaven.

If Archer and Holly met Zoey at some point during the mission, they might take her from the Exchangers.

Whatever the future held, Hero knew what Hailey was now. It was Zoey's fault. A fantastic one.

"We're on a mission," Wade said. "We're on a mission to find Father."

"Right," Zoey said. "And I want to help you. I'm hoping that I can find my own father. I have to find Archer, and I have to see my mother again, too. Holly, I mean."

If the Exchangers and Zoey found the girl's parents, Archer and Holly might try making Zoey live away from Hero and his siblings.

"They might take you away from us," Hero said. "I don't know if your birth parents will want to stay with us."

If Archer and Holly decided to live with the Exchangers, would the Pure kidnappers manage to convince Heaven's people to let Zoey, Archer, and Holly live on Heaven?

As long as the Exchangers completed their mission, Hero's father would live on that wonderful place. That better place.

Hero hoped Zoey would be able to live there. But her birth parents might ruin the Exchangers' lives.

"We'll figure something out," Zoey said, speaking as the bed remained between them. Wade stood near the window and its transparent glass, crossing his muscular arms. "But I know what I want. I don't want anyone to take me away from you, Hero. That's the truth. When we met, I didn't know how important you would become to me. I didn't know you would become my boyfriend. And I didn't expect your brothers and sisters to like me as much as they do now. Most of them wanted to kill me, after all. You didn't let them. You saved my life and I saved yours."

As if he expected Zoey to kiss Hero with deep passion soon, Wade faced the window.

Zoey went near Hero. She kissed him with deep passion. Hero moved his hand to her back, and he moved it up her back. By the time Hero's hand touched brown hair, Zoey caressed his own blond strands.

As they kissed, Hero stayed aware of the truth and Zoey's ignorance remained stuck. The Exchanger had been on Heaven. He had seen that better place.

Heaven was a planet.