Gwen speaks up then. “When we started talking about it in prison, many others shared similar stories. I’m certain the Society is behind it. We know they’re behind the lottery babies being sold. Everyone who pushes back is thrown in prison. The Society threatens their families. There are probably more who are too afraid to say anything and keep quiet to stay with their families. Or even in hopes of getting their babies back one day. It’s what kept me going while I was in there—getting my son back.”
Her Silverbook dings and a smile covers her face.
“Jewel is safe. She’ll be here soon.”
The girls hug each other and we have a moment of quiet.
Phoenix looks at me and the dread curls around my gut like a worm. I already know what she’s going to say.
“We need your help, Jackal. We have to stop this. I have a plan to get Rebel back.”
NINETEEN
PHOENIX
If ferrets don’t have sex once a year, they might actually die.
A few days later we sit around my kitchen table, a half-eaten cake between us. Gwen has her chin propped in her hand. Jewel is pinching the stray crumbs between her pointer finger and thumb. No one has said a word in the last five minutes, a record for Jackal who has been frowning at me the entire time. My plan isn’t so much a real plan as it is a rough draft. I was hoping they’d have more to say about it, but so far everyone is still in thinking mode.
“I can see why you gave us straight vodka,” Jewel says, breaking the silence. “Get us drunk fast and maybe none of this sounds like a fucking crazy idea.”
I glance at Jackal who is rubbing his jaw.
“It might work,” he says, nodding absently.
I feel a rush of gratitude. He is the last one I expected to go along with this.
“I’m coming with,” Gwen says. “No way am I waiting here while you go for my son.”
“You are absolutely not coming with,” Jackal says.
“Fuck you, Jackal,” she says. “You have no idea what this is like for me.”
“You’re right. I don’t. But if anything happens to you, I’ll have to answer to Foley.”
“Folsom would want me to get Rebel—”
Jackal cuts her off. “—Folsom would want you to stay safe. If something happens to you, who raises Rebel? Langley? Your sister? Worse yet, your mother and Petite?”
Gwen’s face visibly pales.
“You stay here.” He punctuates his sentence with a jabbing finger that he aims downward.
I take that to mean right here, in my house.
She nods.
I purse my lips, eyes wide. That went way better than I thought it would.
“If everything goes as planned with Sean, Phoenix and I will leave a week from tomorrow,” Jackal says.
“Why does she have to go with Sean? It seems risky to involve the fucking governor of the Blue,” Tahira argues. “Like...the fuck?”
“She can’t get the paperwork to leave the Region in time,” Jewel says. She spins her lighter on the table and we all watch it transfixed. “Not even I can get them forged in a week. I’d need at least ten days to put that in place.”
“Look, my only shot at getting to the Red is for the Governor’s Summit. They have their ball and I’ll go as Sean’s date. It’s the only way.”
“How do you know he’ll even take you? Maybe he has another date by now.” Gwen’s untouched piece of cake sits in front of her. She’s lost even more weight since arriving here. As a ballerina who’s suffered from eating disorders my entire life, I’m starting to get worried. She weighs less than me now—less than Tahira.