Page 124 of Pretty Savage: Defy

“Yes,” she says softly. “You should have.”

The words go through me because they're true.

Then her hand closes around my arm.

“But making a terrible mistake is not the same as choosing to betray us. We know you, Laurel. You’d never deliberately put us in danger. You love us, and we love you too.”

That makes me cry harder.

“What about your mom?” I ask once I can speak again. The last I heard, Rebecca was pinned down behind the stairs.

“It was so scary.” Sam’s face tightens. “I thought she was going to die. There were ten Jackals closing in on her, and then Carr came in.” She shakes her head. “I’ve never seen anything like it. He went ballistic. Tore through all of them just to get to her. Killed one with his bare hands. He saved her.”

“I’m so glad.”

“Yeah,” Sam’s eyes widen. “I’m more convinced than ever that they used to be bonded.”

I know they were, but I keep quiet. That’s Rebecca’s story to tell. Not mine.

“Mother told me more,” Sam says. “Everything she knows about The Order. The things they’ve done. The things they do. Some of it she didn’t even tell you.”

I look at her properly then.

The devastation in her face is not only grief for the dead. While I sat in darkness, Rebecca dismantled the world her daughter had trusted since birth.

“You ever notice how on the High Council there’s twelve men and eight women?” Sam asks.

“Yeah.” I’d noticed. Thought it strange, the unevenness.

“Mother’s asked them to make it ten and ten. Carr even backed her, but they get outvoted every time.” She drags a finger along the floor, then blows the dust from it. “Even if every woman votes together, they still need three men to agree before they can pass anything. How messed up is that?”

I don’t know what to say. I can’t apologize for the family Sam was born into, and I refuse to defend a society that has concentrated this much power in so few hands. Any comfort I could offer would sound hollow.

I lean my shoulder against hers, the only way I know to show she’s not alone.

“It’s terrible, the things we do. All the ways we take advantage of people,” she whispers.

Her cheeks glisten with silent tears. Now we’re both crying, pressed together on the floor of the room where The Order hides the evidence of everyone who came before us.

“I thought more about what you said after I showed you the ballroom. You’re right. It’s not fair to make you and Carrson expose something so private to everyone. To perform, like your bodies belong to them.” She turns to me, her eyes blazing. “I don’t know how yet, but I’m going to stop it. I promise you.”

“You can’t,” I say, thinking back to all the scheming Carrson and I have done. Our thwarted plans to escape. The passport with my picture and a different name on it. Every door we tried to open before The Order slammed it closed. They all seem so futile now.

The Order will win. It will have its way. Even Silas, even Rebecca, powerful as they are, can’t bring it down.

“I will.” She straightens. “Now get up. I have to get you ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“We have to leave here. Drive to Ashford House. It’s your bonding day,” she says. “You and Carrson.”

I gape, unable to believe what I’m hearing. “You can’t be serious? They’re still doing it? After so many people died.”

She puts her hands on the floor and uses them to push to her feet. “The High Council decided we need it now more than ever. To boost morale after the battle. To prove that The Order is strong. That the line of succession from Carr to Carrson is intact.”

“Everyone agreed to that?”

“Almost. Jack was the only one who voted against it. He said rushing into the bonding would make Carrson look like the confirmed successor before The Order has decided who should lead after Carr.” Her mouth twists. “What he means is that he wants the position for himself, and eventually for his son.”