True to his slimy words, Solys didn't appear for at least a day. I didn't know how Naomi had managed to keep herself so strong and alert after having been locked in here for so long. It was awful. Especially since she didn't want to talk with me. Not that I blamed her. It was her choice, and I would respect it.

I could understand how this whole thing worked on most people. When I heard Solys outside the door, I honestly got a little excited. Not because I was happy to see him. Not even because this would be our chance to escape. It was solely the thought of getting out of here.

But then I saw his smug face and got excited about escaping all over again. Solys slid the door open with agonizing slowness, like he wanted to draw out our torture just a little bit longer. I found myself wondering how he and Rylos could even come from the same family. For all his faults, Rylos was nothing like this psychopath.

"Hello, my darlings," he said with that stupid smile still in place. His attention immediately turned to me, as if he had given up hope on Naomi. Good. It took great effort to keep my expression neutral as he said, "Are you ready to behave?"

I hesitated for a few calculated moments, fidgeting my hands together, then I nodded. Slowly, at first, but building up to something frantic and desperate. This earned me an even wider smile from him.

"Good girl," he said. "Come to me. I'll show you just how good life here can be."

I'm sure, you pig. I tried to look thankful as I got up and approached him. I fought against the urge to wince as he hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me to him. So gross. His beauty meant nothing. Absolutely nothing. He was too rotten on the inside for the outside to look remotely pleasant.

The moment he led me out of the room and started to close the door, Naomi jumped to her feet and rushed over, shouting, "Wait!"

Solys stopped, surprise briefly registering on his expression. "Yes?"

"Are you—Are you really going to let her out already?"

"I most certainly am." The look in his eyes told me he was very eager to test out his newest acquisition and it made my stomach churn.

"Please let me come," she said, her breath shaking with every word, "I don't want to be in here alone again. Please."

A sickly satisfied look spread across his face. "You've learned your lesson, have you?"

"Please," she whispered so softly I could barely hear her.

"I'll let you come with," Solys replied. "However, if you misbehave even once, in the tiniest of ways, you will come back down here and never come up again."

"I . . . I understand."

Solys took her roughly by the arm and kept me tucked against his side as he brought us to the upper floor. To no one's surprise, we went straight to his bedroom. As we stepped inside, he brought his lips close to my ear and said, "If you're planning something, don't think for a second that there aren't guards everywhere. You won't make it far."

I kept silent. Because the only other option was saying something that would most certainly get me thrown back down to the basement. To my surprise, he steered us toward another door in the room.

"We're going to take a shower, my darlings. I think it would be much more fun for all of us if we were clean, don't you?"

I looked over at Naomi and saw that her hair was tangled in knots and her skin held a greasy sheen. She'd been down there for so long. My heart hurt for her, and of course I hated myself a little more for being part of the reason why she was here in the first place.

As he opened the door for us, Naomi shot me a panicked look. I shook my head sharply and stepped closer to Solys, playing the part of eager alien girl. He gave me a satisfied smile when he noticed, making a point of manhandling a buttcheek as I walked into the bathroom ahead of him. My skin crawled, desperate to escape the torture that was his touch.

"Undress. Both of you," he ordered the moment we were inside. And he began to strip with his back to us as he walked toward a rounded square carved into the ivory stone wall. The moment his back was bare I sharply inhaled. He had Rylos's tattoo on his back. Was it a family thing? I wasn't sure yet it confirmed to me that they were actually related, or at least good friends, right? I didn't understand how Rylos could associate with someone so callous.

The more rational side of me was eager to remind me that Rylos was the reason why I was here. He had handed me over to this pervert. His brother. Anger fueling my movements, I tore at my clothing. When I saw that Naomi hadn't even started removing hers, I gave her a wide-eyed look of warning and mouthed, "Please."

I wanted to get this over with already. And I would need her to act like everything was fine if we were going to get our chance. This wasn't exactly what I had planned for—but it would still work. As long as she played along. To my relief, she nodded and started removing her clothes. I gave her what decency I could by looking away.

Unfortunately, I made eye contact with Solys's bare butt as he stepped inside the square and tapped at a tablet inset into the stone. A moment later, a rainfall descended from above. Big, heavy drops. It looked so real, yet it was so perfectly contained, not a single drop extending beyond an invisible line. I swallowed deeply at the thought I was going to have to see so much more in the next few moments. Lucky me. But it was almost over.

Solys turned around. Well, now I knew for certain that despite the glowing eyes and purple skin, Korysti had the exact same anatomy as humans. I tensed, willing myself not to look away. I was supposed to be pretending that I wanted him. I'd ask so much of Naomi, so it was only fair that I did my part, too. I wouldn't fail her or anyone else again.

"Come inside, you two," Solys said in a low voice. I figured it was supposed to be sexy but it only succeeded in making me want to run. Instead, I stepped inside the square and Naomi followed. The look of satisfaction on Solys's face made me want to punch him now and get it over with. But that wouldn't do. So, Naomi and I stood side by side beneath the water.

He leaned back against the wall, eagerly taking in the view. It was better than him touching us, so I would take it. "Wash each other," he ordered.

My eyes widened ever so slightly. "But we want—"

"I don't care what you want. Wash each other. I want to watch, and what I want is what matters."

This guy . . . I turned my head to the side to look at Naomi. She was already on the other side of the shower, grabbing a sphere-shaped object—soap, I would've guessed. When she turned back around, I saw the determination in her eyes and knew we could do this. We just had to get him close enough and make sure he was off-guard.

Naomi lathered up her hands, then passed the soap to me. We faced each other and I held the soap in my hand as I began to lather her shoulders and neck. I didn't want to have to go anywhere else and I was tense with the thought.

Naomi cocked her head to the side and slid her eyes toward Solys. "Won't you join us? I've been alone for so long, I could use all the company I can get."

I suppressed a smile, instead giving Solys an equally needy look. Just come over here, you jerk. He couldn't resist. A smirk curved the corners of his lips as he pushed away from the wall.

"You two really like what you see, don't you?" he asked with a light chuckle as he came to a stop beside us. Naomi gave me a quick look out of the corner of her eye and walked in front of him. She wound her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his.

I positioned myself alongside them. The moment his focus diverted entirely to Naomi, I gave her a small nod and she slowly unwound her arms. As she started to step back, I swept a leg into Solys's shins. Caught unaware, he wobbled slightly—so I gave him a nice push to help him out. As he fell backward, he grabbed onto Naomi, pulling her down with him. His head cracked against the hard floor but he barely seemed to notice.

Teeth bared, he yanked Naomi down against him. "You're both going to regret this. I'm going to—"

In the next moment, Naomi grabbed two fistfuls of his hair and let out a feral cry. She yanked his head up then brought down against the floor again and again. As his eyes rolled into the back of his head, I rushed over and pulled her off him.

"Hey, hey—we're supposed to be knocking him out, not killing him."

When her eyes met mine, I saw she was crying. She shook her head, pressing her lips together to muffle a sob. "He doesn't deserve to live. He's just going to keep on hurting people."

"If we kill him, we're not getting out of here. We can do something about people like him if we get out."

"Do you promise?" she asked with a tremble in her voice.

"I promise."

She nodded at me and got off him. I pulled her toward me and we huddled together, looking as vulnerable and upset as possible. Which wasn't hard, considering the circumstances. On the count of three, we both let out blood-curdling screams. Then we began to shout for help.

When no one immediately rushed inside, we shared a look of disbelief. Some guards he had. I was beginning to think they hated him as much as we did when his guards finally peeked inside. I realized with a sickening churn in my stomach that they might simply be used to hearing screams from his room.

"Help us, please!" I shouted with a sob for emphasis. "The Governor fell and hit his head! He's not moving!"

Two guards rushed into the bathroom. One shut off the shower and the other knelt beside Solys, checking his pulse. He looked relieved. I was, too. Only because it made things easier for us. A third guard rushed inside a moment later.

"Keep him breathing," the standing guard said. "You! Help me get these two back downstairs before medical gets here. Hurry!"

The two other guards seemed genuinely panicked as they took hold of us. Not because Solys was passed out on the ground. They were losing it over the idea of his human toys being seen. My brows knitted together as I chased that thought. They understand that it's wrong.

It went against everything I thought about the Korysti. And everything they'd shown me so far. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I admitted to myself that it wasn't true. I had seen something I liked in Rylos. But he gave me to his gross brother. Maybe Rylos doesn't know what he's really like? I rolled my eyes at myself. My mind was desperately trying to make what he did okay.

As we were roughly taken back out into the hallway, side by side with guards flanking us, I slid my eyes over to Naomi. There was a hint of hopelessness creeping into her expression. I needed her to keep it together. We could do this. Naomi was weak and bordering on frail, but these guards would underestimate us just like Solys had.

We reached a tight hallway and I knew it was the perfect place. I had a vague idea of where we were—I'd memorized every single thing I could as Solys brought me downstairs—but that didn't matter right now. I didn't care where exactly we were. I only cared if the area could work for us or not. My focus had shifted entirely to the staff held by the guard yanking me around.

I tore my eyes away to give Naomi a small, almost imperceptible nod. She gave me one back. I counted to three inside my head. At the same time, Naomi and I slammed our guards into the walls on either side. Taken by surprise, my guard let out a shout and scrambled, trying to figure out what was going on. But it was too late. I had already gripped the base of his staff and jerked it back toward his chest. It landed dead center and he immediately collapsed, releasing his staff. I gave him another jolt from the business end just to be sure.

Once I was certain he would be incapacitated for long enough, I whirled back around to see Naomi grappling with her guard. He had her on her back, both of them grasping the staff. I spun my stolen staff and jammed it into his side—once, twice, three times. He collapsed on top of Naomi, who let out a groan.

"Sorry, sorry," I whispered as I crouched down. I grasped the guard and slowly tugged him off her. Much more slowly than anticipated. People are incredibly heavy when they're unconscious, I learned. "You would think with all those muscles he wouldn't have been knocked over by a woman that weighs as much as a feather."

"That was exactly the problem," Naomi grumbled as she got to her feet. "He nearly got me with that stupid stun stick but he was too distracted by whatever you had going on."

"I don't care as long as we get out of here."

I started stripping my guard, my hands shaking with nerves, while she did the same with hers. I swung my head from side to side and cursed under my breath the entire time, even as I dressed myself in the guard's navy jacket, pants, and hat, because I was convinced someone would stumble across us. And maybe this would make them look away long enough to give us time to escape.

Thankfully, by the time we were both dressed and had the guards tucked away in a closet—each getting another hearty zap—no one had ventured down this hallway. All the commotion was still far away from us in Solys's bathroom.

"We look ridiculous," Naomi said with a groan as we made our way to the end of the hallway, where I knew an exit was waiting.

She was right. I thought having the guards' clothes would help us be a bit more incognito, but she was a borderline skeleton and I certainly didn't look as buff as the average Korysti. We probably looked like kids playing dress-up. Oh well.

"As long as they're really, really far away, they might not notice. Just strip to the bare essentials when we get outside."

"The Korysti have perfect vision, and we look like idiots, but your optimism is . . ." Naomi held up her fingers in an OK sign and rolled her eyes.

I gave her a flat look. "Freedom has you feeling sassy."

"We're not free yet." She sighed.

When we entered the room, I saw through the clear doors that there was a large tree waiting for us just outside. Tall enough to get us over that gate. Especially since Solys had been stupid enough not to give us those bracelets or whatever. The thought gave me pause. Why hadn't he? That seemed like exactly the sort of thing someone like Solys would use. Think about it later, Marion, I scolded myself. There are much more pressing issues right now.

I shook it off and pulled away from Naomi to dart across the room and eye a beautiful, glowing tapestry on Solys's dining room wall.

"Seriously?" Naomi asked in a rushed whisper. "You're going to take this time to admire artwork?"

"Admire it?" I looked over my shoulder and grinned as I grabbed the tapestry and yanked it off the wall. "I guess you could put it that way."

We both froze, our eyes meeting, as thundering footsteps sounded down the hallway. My heart raced and I tightened my grip on my staff. As the sound faded, going off in the opposite direction, I let out the breath I'd been holding. "Let's get going."

"What're you going to do with that?" Naomi asked as we raced through the doors and outside.

I pointed at the tree. "We're going to climb up there and use this," I shook the elegant, glowing tapestry at her, "to get down. Hopefully." The wall was looking a lot taller as we stood directly in front of it. Once I had it knotted around the tree, the tapestry might only get us one-third of the way down. Oh well.

I tossed the tapestry over my shoulder and jumped up to grab the lowest branch. Using my feet and harnessing a boatload of fear, I managed to get myself up. I slung the tapestry over the branch, then reached down to help Naomi up. By the time I'd managed to get her flailing body in the tree with me, I was amazed that no one had come out to see what was going on. It hadn't been pretty. It also made me think that Naomi and I had done some serious damage to Solys. Good. He deserved it.

I knotted the tapestry around the branch as best I could and flung it over the gate. It was a little too thick for the job, but our plan had been vague and based on a lot of what-ifs, so we had to make do.

Naomi looked down over the wall, then looked back at me with a grimace. "That's a long drop, Marion."

"It's better than the basement, I figure."

"I won't fight you on that," she replied, her expression dark. "Anything's better than being down there."

I eyed the knot and gave it a testing tug. I was pretty certain that it could take Naomi down without coming undone. Not so much me. And I didn't think Naomi had the strength to make sure it stayed tied. If I were to go first, I'd run the risk of the tapestry falling with me. Our time was already running short and we didn't have time to play toss-the-blanket.

"You go," I said, giving Naomi a nudge.

She nodded and swallowed deeply before grasping the tapestry and slowing sinking herself over the wall with her eyes closed.

"Watch where you're going," I whispered tersely.

"I'm going down, Marion. Where else?" A second later she murmured, "I'm afraid of heights."

"You were a pilot." I resisted the urge to laugh as I held onto the knot, making sure it stayed together. "How is a pilot afraid of heights?"

Her eyes popped back open. "It's different in space. There's nowhere to fall to. You just float."

"I suppose that makes sense." I noticed with relief that she'd nearly made it to the ground. "You're almost there."

She briefly dared to look down then let out something between a yelp and a sigh of relief. "Thank you for distracting me."

I gave her a half-smile. "It's the least I could do, right?"

"I'm sorry, too." She inched down the wall a little more. The knot was starting to strain against my hands.

"We all did the best we could," she continued. "Honestly, I blame myself just as much."

"Okay, but maybe we can have this conversation on the ground. Go!"

The knot threatened to come undone as Naomi sped down the wall and my arms burned from holding it together. When I felt the tapestry go slack, I looked over the wall to see her picking herself up from the ground with a wince. She still gave me a thumbs-up. I quickly tossed over our staves, which we'd left lying across two branches, down to her.

I gave the knot one last cinch, gave it a hard look, then swung myself over the side. I didn't hesitate for a single second. I knew it wasn't going to hold. Sure enough, just as soon as I reached the mid-way point, I suddenly felt weightless—that was until I slammed into the hard ground. I let out something between a wheeze and a shout, my eyes wide with shock and pain.

"Shame they have gravity, right?" Naomi asked as she helped me to my feet.

"It's a real bitch," I replied, my voice hoarse.

Even though I wanted to curl up against the wall and whimper, I instead darted into the nearest cover with Naomi and stripped off my guard jacket so I was wearing nothing but a tank top. I rolled up the pants to my knees so they wouldn't drag. Naomi mimicked my movements, then started scanning the area around us.

"I think we should head into the forest," Naomi proposed. "No Korysti are going to take us in, not that I would trust them anyway. We can figure the rest out later."

I hesitated for a moment. I recognized this neighborhood. I had seen it before the car Rylos and I took to his work started moving quickly. Solys lived near his brother. "I think—I think I know someone who might help us."

It was stupid. So unbelievably stupid. But I believed somewhere deep down that Rylos had no idea what a sick person his brother was. If I told him . . .

"I'm not going anywhere near another Korysti. My skin is crawling just knowing I'm on the same planet with them."

I knew where she was coming from. She was me before him. I understood her hatred. However, I also didn't think we would fair well in the forest. We needed the help of someone like Rylos.

"Please, Naomi. Just come with me."

She shook her head, already backing away. "Thank you again for getting me out, but . . . no."

Naomi was running before I even had the chance to entertain stopping her. I watched her form retreating into the forest with a hint of sadness.

I hoped that Rylos would help me—even if I was still furious with him. Because she was going to need help, and fast. That went for every other human on this planet, too. If Rylos didn't believe me about his brother, I was going to give up on that last, tiny sliver of hope I'd managed to scrounge up for our escape.