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W e didn’t talk about much on the drive. In fact, we didn’t talk at all. I thought Wes was still nursing his pride after his father backhanded him in front of me, while I…well, I was freaking out.

Everything was falling apart, and I was finding myself cornered with little options.

Charles had me caught between a rock and a hard place, and he knew it.

He was going to use me to make Wes do things I knew he didn’t want.

And I couldn’t bear that. Wes spent his life cooking up ways to defy his father, to assert silently that he was his own person.

But Charles was going to use me like a vice, choking Wes, making him conform into a version of himself he didn’t want to be.

I just couldn’t do that.

I couldn’t be the person who forced Wes into that position. But, if I didn’t, then I risked my brother’s life. I risked Charles having Jacob executed or keeping him as a prisoner for the rest of his existence as leverage against me.

I was stuck.

And no matter how hard I turned the puzzle in my head, I couldn’t find a way out…except for one. There was exactly one card I had left to play. The only card Charles didn’t expect from me.

And I was going to play it.

But I was going to need help. I was going to need two very specific people for the job. And I was going to have to be quick about it because time was running out.

***

We arrived at the base an hour later. Jim texted Wes while Matias texted me, both with the same message: Get down here, NOW!

And once we arrived at the gym, we put the pieces together. Matias was doing everything he could to hold Edith back while Jim was trying to wrangle Calista.

“You’re insane!” Calista screamed.

Edith raged, “What kind of bitch does that!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I yelled, running to Edith.

“What the fuck is going on?” Wes yelled.

Calista shrugged Jim off her. “That bitch tried to knife me!”

My eyes widened as I turned to face Edith. “For real?”

“Get off me, Matias! Or I’ll stab your ass too,” she threatened.

“Not until you calm the fuck down,” he yelled back.

“Ugh! Fine!” She stopped thrashing. “I’m calm , see? Now let go.” Matias hesitated, but then loosened his grip just as Edith shrugged herself free from his grasp, turning to glare at him.

“Anybody want to tell me what the fuck is going on with my team four days before a mission?” The drill sergeant marched into the gym, making us all turn to face him.

It didn’t take long before Calista was spilling the beans. “That bitch knifed me,” she said as she lifted her arm and pointed out the clean cut on her bicep, a trickle of blood dripping down her porcelain skin.

“Oh come off it,” Edith shot back. “A cut is hardly me knifing you. You’d be dead, Haeflinger.” She lifted a hand, pointing a blade at Blondie that I only just now noticed. “Consider it a friendly warning,” she added with a sneer.

“You’re crazy!”

“Enough!” The drill sergeant marched forward, eyes ablaze. “Do you want to explain to me, Le, why you attacked your teammate?”

Edith grew serious, but she showed no remorse, no regret. “She had it coming, sir.”

“Really?” He said incredulously. “And why is that?”

Edith looked at me, a flicker in her gaze, before she set her sights on Calista. “Calista stuck her nose in other people’s business one too many times at the party. She knows exactly what she did.”

It was all she said. In that instant, I knew Edith saw Calista’s stunt at the gala. Blondie may have tried to make pulling my shawl off look like an accident, but Edith knew better. Edith knew the whole backstory, knew Calista’s wicked nature, and she knew exactly what really happened.

Oh, Edith… She really was my best friend. I was going to miss her.

“Is that right?” the sergeant said, sarcasm lacing his voice. “Well, I don’t give a fuck about what happened at a damn party! You got that, Le? In four days, I need a team that won’t kill each other on the fucking boat before they ever leave the damn dock!”

Oh, he was pissed, and I couldn’t blame him.

I’d be angry too. Of course, I would have knifed Calista last night too if given the opportunity.

Today, however, was different. Everything was different.

Because I needed her help, and it was going to take stuffing my pride as deep as I could to muster the ability to do it.

“You’re grounded, Le.”

“What?” Edith said.

“You’re grounded,” the sergeant repeated. “You’re off the mission.”

I stepped forward this time. “But it’s a six-person job and we don’t have time to replace her.”

“Don’t give me lip today, de la Puente. I’m not in the fucking mood.

The mission will do just fine with five and I can’t risk Miss Happy Knife here losing her shit on another teammate during the job.

” He turned to face Edith and swiped the dagger from her hand.

“You’re grounded. Go back to the bunkhouse, get your shit, and report back to the main office. Go .”

I turned to see Edith, fury in her expression. But just as her eyes caught mine, she gave me a weak smile, mouthed sorry , and walked out of the gym.

“As for the rest of you, the wall! Let’s go!” He yelled before blowing his whistle.

We all groaned as we turned to face the stupid climbing wall again with its stupid bell. And while we climbed, and fell, and climbed, and fell, over and over again, I just kept thinking about what I had to do, dreading the thought that I might never see Edith again.

***

I was jelly. Every limb felt like I could barely move it as I tried to climb into my cot in the bunkhouse.

I looked to see Edith’s bed, but of course, she wasn’t there.

I made a mental note that I had to make things right between us before I left.

I didn’t want to go, to never see her again, leaving things like they were.

That would be Tomorrow Me’ s problem, though. Tonight, I had bigger fish to fry.

I glanced over at Calista who was stripping her cargos off, leaving on just her bra and underwear, gritting her teeth as she moved her stiff muscles. As she settled into her cot, I decided there was no time like the present, and cleared my throat.

“Hey,” I whispered.

She ignored me.

“Calista,” I tried again.

“What do you want, Telvian?” There was an edge to her voice.

How do you tell your rival that you need their help? I struggled to find the right approach.

“I said what do you want ?” she snapped, sitting up and facing me.

The thought of telling her to eff off struck me. But I needed her. And my pride was going to have to take a backseat, whether I liked it or not. Biting my cheek to keep myself from giving her the middle finger, I took a deep breath.

Well, here goes nothing.

“I need your help.” There! It was out.

“ What? ” she spat as though the word tasted bitter.

“I need your help.”

Calista scoffed, “Eff off,” and then settled back into her bed.

My lips pressed together, stifling a groan. She was going to make this difficult, but I had to get her to help me. I couldn’t see any other way. “Calista, just…just freaking listen to me, okay?”

She ignored me.

“Erg! Just listen . Besides, I think you’re going to like it.”

She was silent for a moment, then she wrestled in her bed before finally sitting up. “Fine. What is it?”

Another heavy sigh. Did I really want to do this?

I was trusting her not to out me, but there was a fat chance she might spill the beans the first moment she got.

But I had less than three days to make sure all the pieces were in place.

Closing my eyes, I made a silent prayer that I was making the right choice, and then spoke.

“I need to ask you a favor. I…I need you to help me run away.”

Calista laughed. She actually laughed at me. “Oh yeah, like you’re actually going to do that. Nice try, de la Puente, but I’m not buying that. If I could be so lucky as to have your ass gone,” she muttered as she laid back down.

“I’m serious , Calista.” And then I told her the truth…

well, a truth, just not the truth. I couldn’t risk Charles finding out I had told someone.

That would place Wes in danger. So I told her I never wanted to marry Wes.

That Matias and I were a couple back in the rebel camp, and that marrying Wes was being forced upon me so that my brother would be saved.

I explained that the whole reason for me insisting that I go on the mission was to give me a chance to run away with Jacob at the first opportunity.

That I never planned for us to get back on the dinghy.

I shared how Sasha threw a kink in my plan when she assigned me to have two bodyguards to watch my every move.

And, finally, I shared the only thing that I could think of to finish convincing her.

“If you help me escape with my brother, help us get away, I’ll be gone forever.

I can’t risk my brother standing trial or being forced to marry someone I don’t want.

I’ll be gone, and then…” I hesitated, because I’d rather chew glass than say the next few words.

But she had to help me. I needed her. “And then I won’t be in your way with Wes. He’ll be all yours.”

I felt like clawing my own eyes out, like ripping my skin. But I bit my cheek again, staying focused on the plan. She had to take the bait.

Calista’s eyes bore into mine, and I could tell she was weighing everything out. Her eyes narrowed into slits.

“I swear to God, de la Puente, if this is a setup, I will destroy you. Do you understand? I’ll make you wish you had never been born.”

I nodded, hope rising. “It’s not. I can’t stay in the North, but I can’t escape if you and Jim are watching me like a hawk.”

She mulled it over for a second until she finally nodded. “Fine. I’ll help you.”

Oh thank god!

“Do you have a plan?”

“No, but we have to get my brother first and then we both have to disappear.”

She rubbed her lips together. “It’s a tall order.”

“I know, but I have to try.”

Her eyes bore into mine as a slick smile took over her lips. “It’s a shame, Mara. You probably would have made a good president. You never struck me as a schemer, but then again, I probably should have assumed it was in your blood, given your parents.”

I glared at her, trying my best not to react to her jab. “Are you done?”

“Oh baby, I’m just getting started.”