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“With his initials,” I admit. Then, knowing she needs to hear the rest. I place my hand on my body, pointing to the location. “Right here.”

A tremor wracks through her body, so violent that I start to reach for her. She jerks back, giving me a cold look of warning, and I give her space. “This is on me. I never should have left her with that monster.”

“You couldn’t have known he was going to go this far,” Levi says. Of course, the problem is that I did know. Anex told me his plans for Imogene, and he didn’t warn me about this. “His focus on Imogene is… it’s different.”

“The night we found out about the branding, is the night Rex decided she would leave. He was livid. He knew why his father marked his mate. He was claiming her as his own,” I explain, aware that every word I say is making it worse. “He was going to force her to leave—to come to you. But Anex called a last-minute meeting—it was late, the music sounded, and we knew that not showing up would tip him off. It felt safer to go and leave after.”

Camille’s eyes are ringed in red when she guesses, “But that never happened.”

“He called us out in front of the entire community. He read Imogene’s collateral, proof that she’d been Regressive. That we had broken rules. He banished me and Levi—tossing us out of Serendee, and forced Imogene, Rex, and Silas into Re-education.”

“That’s not all he wants from her, is it?” she asks.

“Anex wants her to be his next spiritual wife,” Levi says quietly. “They’ll be mated at the equinox.”

“If I could get her out, I would’ve done it years ago.” Her hands fist at her sides. “Why are you here? Just to hurt me? To pick at old wounds? To show me how, after all this time, he still has control over me?”

“We’re here because we have nowhere else to go. No one else understands what we’ve been through.” But it’s more than that. “You understand Anex—Timothy Wray—what he is capable of. We need someone as desperate to get Imogene out as we are.”

“You care for her?” she asks, blinking as though she’s seeing us for the first time.

“Rex and Silas are our brothers,” Levi says. “Imogene… she’s important to us. We won’t leave them behind.”

“How? How do we get them out?”

“First,” Levi says, running his hands over his thighs, “we have to get inside Serendee.”

“That’s not going to happen,” she snaps.

Levi tilts his head. “It will if Anex thinks we’ve got something he wants.”

I frown. His eyes shift to Camille and recognition hits the two of us at the same time.

“Camille—” I whisper, but she cuts me off.

“Me.” Her expression is impassive as she repeats, “He wants me.”

“You’re the one that got away. The only thing he wants. The failure he needs to redeem.” His voice seems steadier. More confident and I realize Levi had this plan all along. It’s why we’re here. “The only way we’re getting them out is if we trade them for you.”

11

Imogene

“Imogene.”

“Shoot.” The sound of my name makes me skip a stitch and the needle stabs in my finger.

“Sorry to startle you,” Margaret says. She’s standing in the doorway of the common room where me and several of the pregnant women have spent the afternoon sewing baby clothes. “But I need you to come with me.”

Her voice is light—unassuming—but my chest clenches regardless. I feel like all I do is try to keep a low profile, stay off the radar of anyone with connections to Anex. I should know better. This is his world, and I’m nothing but a planet caught in his orbit.

“Of course,” I say, trying to keep the blood beading at the tip of my finger from spilling on the white cotton dress I’d been working on. Maria, who is sitting next to me, takes it without a word.

“Thank you.” I stand, giving her an appreciative grin.

I’m met with silence and a blank expression. We’ve spoken very little since hanging laundry together. There’s nothing much to say. She thinks I’m Regressive.

She’s not wrong.