Page 120 of The Art of Exiley

“Ada doesn’t need to help her cover,” Kor retorts. “She’s not going back.”

“Ada will decide what’s best for herself,” my mother says with finality. Words I’d never thought I’d hear her say.

Kor looks as if he is about to protest, but I say, “I want to go back.”

He turns to me, eyes wide. “You’ll leave me forthem?”

How can he look so hurt?I’mthe one who has been betrayed.

“No. I’m going tohelpyou. There’s something called a Ha’i stone. If I can find it, maybe you won’t need anyone’s blood.”

His expression hardens. “Fine. Go. And take the girl. If she’s ill, she should be returned to her family. But think twice before you leave. We don’t need you there anymore. We have a new informant at Genesis.”

“What?”

What?

Who could it possibly be? Are they the one who stole the Ha’i stone? And if it wasn’t Nora Montaigne, how is she involved? Gah. Everything is muddled in my mind.

“Go on.” Kor turns away from me.

“Wait. What more have you learned about Ozymandias Tech?”

He freezes, and without turning, he says, “We no longer think they’re involved.”

That can’t be right. They have to be involved somehow. I want to tell Kor what I’ve learned about Nora Montaigne’s family connections, but something else takes precedence in my mind.

“If it wasn’t Oz Tech, then who kidnapped me?”

Kor’s shoulders fall, and he finally turns back to face me again, his face devastated.

I can barely breathe.

I look to my mother, and she has tears in her eyes. “I swear I had no idea,” she says.

I look back to Kor. “Butyoudid?”

He nods in affirmation. I feel as if I might crumple onto the ground, but, somehow, I remain standing.

“How could you?” I finally choke out, unable to stop the tears that well up. “Kor, they put me in a crate. I couldn’t move. I could hardly breathe.” I choke on a sob. “And the gloves, they burned me. It hurt so much—” My voice breaks, and I try to swallow the painful lump in my throat.

“I had no choice.”

“They knocked me out.” I instinctively reach to the spot at the back of my head.

“They should not have done that,” he says with steel in his voice. “They wereneversupposed to hurt you.”

“Why didn’t you warn me?”

“I wanted to. I should have. I… Your response had to be genuine.”

I blink up at him. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I’m sorry,” he says softly. “I couldn’t be positive that you having abilitieswould be enough for the heretics to recruit you. They needed to think you were in danger. And the rest of the Inner Chamber had to be convinced you were at risk so they’d agree to send you away.”

He not only didn’t tell me about it, but he was the one who planned the whole thing.

I look to my mom for some kind of explanation.

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