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WES

October—One Year Prior

I was nervous.

Being him didn’t feel right. And being asked to play the role—to be him and not myself—only reminded me of how he was the better version.

I was just the spare.

I kept my eyes trained on the asphalt and crossed the street, avoiding unnecessary attention from Telvian Enforcement officers on patrol.

Be inconspicuous. Be respectful. Be refined.

Smile.

Don’t be you. Be everything but you.

Be him .

Normally I played the role of a soldier, a face in the ranks. Normally I trained, ran secret ops behind the scenes, snuck around the city at night. Never seen and always a shadow.

Never the role of a reputable citizen.

Never the role of a beloved son .

Never the role of anyone that ever mattered.

Citizens scurried about, making their way home after a long day’s work. But I wasn’t going home. Home was beyond the city’s wall. I was heading to the center.

The Capital was the heart of Telvia, surrounded by three concentric rings consisting of districts.

Each district belonged to a caste, with the Noble Class living in District 1, closest to the heart.

The outskirts—District 3—was where the Subclass lived.

The impoverished. The sick. The elderly.

Those who were deemed replaceable, a drain on society, unworthy, undeserving.

It turned my blood to acid.

I stepped around a lamppost, burying my hands into the pockets of my tan slacks, wishing the black turtleneck wasn’t so warm. The breeze had a bite, but I was used to colder weather. My nerves had adrenaline pumping through me like magma. I was a walking furnace at this point.

How the fuck did they expect me to pull this off?

I didn’t care how much I looked like him. He was sophisticated and refined. Groomed from the very beginning to play this part. But not me. I was an army grunt. There was no fucking way she wasn’t going to notice the difference between us.

Unless she was dense.

Huh…I hadn’t considered that.

My heart pounded as I walked toward the Academy—rows of gray cinder block, twelve stories worth of windows, and enough lies to fill the heads of every citizen. Fake histories. Narratives about an earth long gone, destroyed by our own hands.

A great drought.

A starving nation.

A dying earth.

And war.

Brainwashing at its finest, crafted by the best keeper of lies—Raúl de la Puente, President of Telvia .

“Halt, citizen.”

I froze. I swallowed.

“Present yourself for scanning.”

Licking my lips, I stuck out my chin, standing a little taller as I faced the Enforcement officer. With plated white armor and matching helmet, I couldn’t see his face. That was unnerving.

You could tell a lot about a person from their face…their eyes, most of all. See a lot about the world they carried within them. That’s why I worked so hard to keep mine blank, because I didn’t need anyone knowing my secrets. They were my burdens and mine alone.

“Citizen, present yourself for scanning or be prepared to face consequences as determined by Telvian Enforcement.”

Be inconspicuous. Be respectful. Be refined.

Smile.

I cleared my throat and tried to grin. Forced. Brittle. Fake.

It was like asking a stone to bend as though it were the supple petal of a fresh white rose.

“Of course, officer.” I opened my eyes wide, tipped my head back, and hoped the contact lenses did their job.

He lifted the handheld monitor and scanned my eyes. The device blinked yellow and then flashed green. “Move along,” he said.

I hustled on to my destination, grateful that I didn’t screw that part up at least.

Stepping onto a landscape of decomposed granite and succulents that decorated the front of the Academy, the bell rang, and I turned my attention to the red double doors bearing the Telvian crest—two lions holding a shield with a prominent letter T in a bold font. They opened.

People of all ages, colors, and sizes suddenly consumed the front of the building.

But despite their diversity, they all wore the same uniform.

Navy blue slacks, white button-up shirt, and a red tie for the boys.

For the girls, white knee-high socks, navy-blue skirt, white button-up blouse, and red tie as well.

Small children as young as five, to young adults preparing for their Initiation Month at eighteen, flooded the front of the Academy, ready to go home after a long day of indoctrination.

I worked my jaw, nervous of whether or not this was going to work, that I could actually pull this off. He was supposed to pick her up and walk her home. Not me. But he needed to be someplace else…somewhere that required his particular brand of charm that I never possessed.

I was too rough.

Too crude.

Too brass.

Where he needed to be required more delicacy and finesse. More important than fulfilling his commitment to pick her up and take her home. But making sure she was safe was also a top priority. Making sure that things went well was also a necessary step for this whole thing to work as planned.

Call in the spare.

Bring in the extra.

Don’t screw it up.

Be inconspicuous. Be respectful. Be refined.

Smile.

I placed my hands back in my pockets, blowing out a breath as I searched the faces. And then…my heart stopped.

She was a petite thing. Slender. Perfectly proportioned, perfectly symmetrical, and beautiful .

Rich, long brown hair with hues of coppery red fell just below the middle of her back.

Lips that, even from here, I could see were pink, luscious, and perfectly shaped into Cupid’s bow. But more than anything…

More captivating than anything…

More breathtaking than anything…

More gut-wrenching than anything…

Were her eyes .

Because when they caught sight of me, they lit up like the sun breaking through the clouds on a stormy day. And as she stepped toward me, they revealed layer after layer after layer.

They were endless.

Bottomless.

A chasm of depth, of emotion, of ocean water so profound, I swore I could never hold my breath long enough to swim to the deepest corners of them.

The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand,

And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.

Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!

For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

I was never one for Shakespeare, but Mara de la Puente—daughter of Telvia’s ruthless dictator—was making me understand Romeo more than I would ever care to admit.

“Hey, I thought you were going to meet me in the parking lot?” she said, coming up to me.

I blinked. My heart stuttered.

Be inconspicuous. Be respectful. Be refined.

Smile.

I smiled. And it was… easy . I was the supple white petal of a fresh white rose.

She graced me with a grin and her eyes flickered, telling me secrets, and stories, and songs. “Are you ready to go?”

I shuddered. “Yes. Yes, let’s go.”

Her brows pinched. “Chase, are you okay? You seem off .”

I stopped. Everything inside me went cold as the Pacific Ocean. Thirty-eight degrees Fahrenheit. Chilled to the bone.

“Chase?” Those brown eyes shifted, wavered, whispered.

Be inconspicuous. Be respectful. Be refined.

Smile .

I smiled. Forced. Brittle. Fake. “Yeah, I’m fine. Long day at work.” Lies.

She arched a brow. Her long black lashes fluttered, danced. “Wanna talk about it?”

Fuck no, I didn’t want to talk about it.

Because Shakespeare was an ass.

Because Romeo was a moron.

Because who the fuck falls in love at first sight? Better yet, what fucking idiot falls in love at first sight with their brother’s promised?

“Chase?”

I’m not Chase! “No, I’m fine. It’s fine.” I cleared my throat. “Shall we?” I held my hand out for her, letting her lead the way. But I didn’t dare touch her. I didn’t dare test the feel of her skin.

Because I was stone.

Because I was just the spare.

Because I was fucking Romeo.

And I had just found my Juliet.