I hated how much I meant that. There were so many things that I didn’t know about the Illum, the Elite, and now the Major Defects. I had become so compliant in my monotonous existence. Everyone else held secrets, even Rose, Violet, Harold, and all the other Defects serving them up in their world. They knew things that I did not. Hal’s words from a week ago rang out in my mind.They have made thousands of women just like you. Brainwashed and compliant to a cause you know nothing about. You’re a plaything.The room felt too small, the rage burning too hot.
“I would wager that’s their goal.” Hal’s warm voice filled the space.
“What if I want to understand?” I asked. Would knowing rob me of life in the clouds? A temporary one, but a life all the same.
Hal leaned in, tugging my chair closer to him until I could see the amber bleeding into his light brown irises. “You’d have to come to the Underworld to find out, Moonlight.”
“Underworld?”
Hal lowered his voice. “Can I trust you with a secret?” I nodded, leaning toward him. “Low Town is just for looks. We don’t live there.”
“Where do you live?” I asked breathlessly.
“Beneath.” His gaze collided with mine. “We live in tunnels beneath the surface.”
I bit my lip, my curiosity racing, my thoughts desperate. Desperate not to be silenced. I had signed a contract legally binding me to Collin, an agreement that was a matter of survival, even if my body felt otherwise. It didn’t seem like I was at risk for elimination, but there was an expiration date on the contract, no matter how successful I was.
And when Collin had kissed me, for a moment I had forgotten a world existed on the surface at all.
Yet what if the thing I had been taught to fear—being phased out and condemned to a life in blue—wasn’t what I had thought? What else did the Majors hide?
I couldn’t help the next question. “How do you get here?”
“I could show you,” Hal whispered. “You just have to ask.”
My head felt too full. Collin had been nothing but kind and thoughtful. He was part of the Illum, though. I stared at the painting of the woman and her book.
“What are they doing with her?” Hal asked quietly.
I looked at my screen, my heart breaking. “They’re destroying her.” My voice was thicker than I intended.
I hovered over thedeletebutton. Hal’s leg bounced. “Of course they are. They destroy everything beautiful and different.” His voice was laced with something that sounded like pain.
I turned my chair toward him again, unable to stop myself. A rogue curl fell across my face. Hal reached up at the same time I did, our hands colliding. Hal recoiled, his eyes on my wrist.
“So, the contract is official, then?”
I tugged my sleeve down, concealing the glow. “It became official yesterday afternoon.”
“I guess congratulations are in order,” Hal said. My heart picked up its pace at the coldness permeating his words. He slowly stood, setting the trash bin back in its usual place. “Or maybe condolences.”
“Don’t be cruel.”
Hal laughed, but it didn’t meet his eyes. “Forgive me, congratulations. Didn’t realize that’s the type of life you want up there, being his fertile vessel.” He shook his head in disgust.
“You don’t know him,” I shot back. Maybe that was how most Defects were treated, but this was different. Collin treated me like more than a vessel. Didn’t he?
Hal opened his mouth before closing it again. “He’s an Illum. I don’t have to know him to know exactly what he is. You’re a vessel. An obligation.”
“I am not merely a vessel. He’s different.”
Hal stepped back. “He’sdifferent?” he asked incredulously.
“Yes, I think he is.”
Hal snorted. “Ask your dear Mate what they call him among the Elite. Have you ever bothered asking him what he does up in his clouds? What about when they send him to the surface?” Hal stepped toward me as my brows pulled in. “That’s right, you can’t. That’d require you to have rights up there. To be more than avessel.”
“What are you talking about? How do you know any of this?” I demanded.
