Queen (The Blackcoat Rebellion #3)(41)

* * *

I waited for the news of my death to hit the media, but it never did.

Part of me was glad. Even though Benjy and Knox knew better than to believe everything they heard on the news, I didn’t want to give them any inkling that they might have lost me. Not before I could explain what had happened.

But the other part of me—the part that had given Daxton’s speech and knew that if news broke that I’d mysteriously died only hours later, everything I’d said would be thrown into question—wished Daxton had crowed about it fromthe rooftops. He certainly did about everything else. The camera crew even had an interview with him and the former Minister Bradley the day after Lila’s death, and Bradley was all too pleased to discuss how the Ministers of the Union had felt that, during this time of war, it would be best for the country if the Prime Minister could bypass the usual government channels. They left the lingering impression that the dissolution of the Ministers of the Union was temporary, but Greyson and I knew better.

Though we were nearly always in the same room, I gave Greyson as much space as he needed. Sometimes he sat in bed with me and read aloud, and sometimes he sequestered himself on the far side of the room, not saying a word for hours at a time. We watched the news together as much as we could stand, but try as I might, it was impossible for me to read between the lines the way Knox could.

Every morning I woke up with my stomach in knots, certain Daxton would take one look at me and know I wasn’t the real Lila, but over the course of the next several days, I didn’t see him at all. Greyson and I discussed plan after whispered plan of how to take him out. While he slept, at dinner, bribing a guard for a gun—there were any number of ways we could do it, but nothing was a guarantee. And the more distance Daxton kept between us, the more impossible it became. As terrified as I was of having to once again step into Lila’s shoes, I was more than willing to take that risk if it meant getting a clean shot at Daxton. But soon enough, it became painfully obvious that he might not give us that chance at all.

Four days after Lila’s death, I woke up to a crackle in my ear. “Kitty?”

I blinked in the darkness. It was after midnight, and I could hear Greyson’s soft snores from the sofa bed. So where had the voice come—

“Knox?” I gasped. Greyson’s snoring stopped.

“It’s good to hear your voice,” he said, sounding relieved. Greyson sat up and turned on his reading lamp, giving me a questioning look.

“The earpiece,” I said, tapping the cuff. “Knox is on the other end.”

While Greyson fumbled with his, I hugged my pillow and tried not to grin too hard. It had worked. It had really worked.

“Are you okay? Is Benjy all right?” I said, the words tumbling out of me in a rush.

“We’re fine,” he said. “I don’t want to give you too many details, just in case, but—we’re fine. I’ve put Benjy in charge of another division, and he’ll be moving out soon.”

My enthusiasm deflated. “But—you’re supposed to watch his back.”

“I am,” he said. “He’ll be safe, I promise. Safer than the rest of us still in Elsewhere. But talk to me—tell me what’s been going on.”

Any lingering joy I had left over making contact with him dried up completely. He didn’t know. Of course he didn’t—how could he?—but in my excitement, I hadn’t thought about being the one to deliver the news. I didn’t think I could, and I hesitated, trying to force the words to come together.

“Lila’s dead.” Greyson’s voice joined our conversation, and I looked at him in shock. He stared at his hands.

“Lila’s—what?” stammered Knox, sounding as if all the air had left his lungs.

“Daxton thinks it’s me,” I said quietly. “He was—he said he was going to let me go, but Lila and I switched places. He blew up the helicopter. He thinks I was the one inside.”

“But—it was—”

“Lila. Yeah,” said Greyson. I hadn’t seen him cry in days, but his voice tightened.

Knox was silent for so long that I thought we’d been disconnected. But at last he cleared his throat and said gruffly, “I’m sorry. If you would rather I not broadcast it—”

“No. Not yet,” said Greyson, looking at me. “Kitty has to pretend to be Lila. If Daxton finds out we outsmarted him— He’s coming undone as it is. I’ve never seen anyone grow more unraveled over such a short period of time. I don’t know how long we have before he loses it completely.”

“Where are you?” said Knox. “The Stronghold?”

“Yeah,” I said. “He has all the Ministers of the Union here. He forced them to sign the amendment giving him absolute power.”

“I figured as much,” he grumbled, and then, as I remembered the cramped meeting room full of Ministers who were now as much prisoners as Greyson and I were, something awful occurred to me.

Knox had no idea his father was dead.

“Knox...” I trailed off and looked at Greyson, but he’d already done the hardest part. I couldn’t make him say this, too. “Your father tried to stop him. He led the movement to have Daxton removed as Prime Minister, but beforehecould... Daxton—Victor—he killed your father.”