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I wanted to stop them — to curse the fools to shut up and wake up to the truth. But I needed them to drive home the lie, so I forced my lips into a cruel sneer and sat back to watch.

Kaiya bit her lip hard enough to draw blood before fleeing into the darkness of her cell.

She was doing it again. The thing that drove me to drink — crying silently in the darkness. She thought no one could see or hear, but I could feel it, so much worse after yesterday.

My own eyes burned, and my throat felt tight.

You think you're alone, Kaiya, but I see you. I always have.

"Why, son?" Uncle Harlsted said, voice filled with disappointment.

I looked from his grave face down to where the moonshine hid in my clothes. I wanted nothing more than to chug it, curl up, and disappear back into the fog. At least I hadn't felt the pain so much in there.

Better yet, I wanted to call out to Kaiya and explain to her that it was all a lie to drive her to safety.

But none of that was what was needed if I was going to keep her oranyof them safe.

"Uncle," I said, voice ragged and tired. "We need to talk about the escape plan. I am begging you, please, don't go through with it …"

Chapter 15

Kaiya

Straw poked into my side, and I rolled over … again. No matter what I did, I couldn't get my body to relax while we waited for the escape signal.

I could REALLY use one of those dreams about now — dancing with Jaiel in the ballroom as music flooded over us, our bodies moving as one.

But fears over how the escape would go, and Liam's irritating question just kept bouncing around in my head, keeping me from falling asleep.

I was needed here, wasn't I?Going with Tye wasn't as simple as Liam made it sound. The prisoners —

"Maybe it's because we've arrived," someone said.

"Can't be," Darlene snapped. "We've not slowed yet."

"Maybe they just got busy."

"Too busy to do evening rounds? For the first time ever? The day we escape?! No, they're onto us. We need to make a break for it now before they come bursting in to finish us off!"

"I told you something was off," Liam called out. "We MUST call off the escape."

I debated going back to my futile attempts at sleep, but it was no use.

Sighing, I forced myself into a seated position and scooted towards the cell door.

Liam sat at the front of his cell, dark brows twisted into a scowl as he explained his reasoningyet againto Mrs. Harlsted.

What if he was right?

No. I couldn't consider that. They were too close just to throw it away because the untrustworthyLieutenanttold him something he didn't like, and he had a bad feeling about it all …

He looked towards me and froze mid-sentence, those green eyes going wide. "Oh." He cleared his throat. "You're awake."

I gave the asshole my most disgusted look, then yelled down the cell block. "What's going on, Mrs. Harlsted?"

"The guards skipped the nighttime meal and rounds, and no one knows why," Liam answered.

"More bad news, as always," Darlene snapped.