The morning of my escape. My maids wake me up quickly and usher me to breakfast. When I get there I don't notice all the eyes that look at me walking in late, I am too focused on the sick feeling I have in my stomach. A thousand scenarios play in my head. Ones where I get caught and others where we take over the palace one day. Leaving the palace is risky. What if the riots are nothing of importance and people really don't want to band together for change? What if this is all for nothing?

"Late, as always."

Meghan sits up straighter when I plop down beside her.

"Meghan," I try to find the right words. "When we first met you said you admired me for doing what I needed in order to survive."

She didn't take her eyes off of her plate, but I could tell she was shocked at the topic I brought up. "It was something like that."

"I know you don't trust me, but I need you to forgive me for what I have to do."

She paused her eating, but still didn't look at me.

"I am sorry, Meghan. You and I are similar in so many ways and I think that's why we never got to be true friends; we just butt heads too much."

When she finally looked at me her eyes were glassy from holding back tears. "Why does this sound like a goodbye?" Her voice was weak. Her friend Val had left her and now I was going too.

"I have to do this if we want change to happen. I can't help anyone from in here anymore. I have to reach people on the outside."

She looked very confused, but I knew she was already starting to understand. "You're doing it? For real? The rebellion is happening?"

I needed to get outside of the palace and form an organized group. I had to help people form so we could make a real difference in the caste system. I wanted to tell her this, but there was no time and too many ears.

"I'm sorry," I said again and curled my hands into fists. With one swift motion I send my fist hurling at her jaw and they collided with a sickening crack.

Screams erupted from all around me. The few Selected girls that were left bounced up from their seats and as far away from me as they could get. Meghan's chair tipped over and she fell onto the floor, clutching her face.

I looked down at the ground numbly and didn't fight as two guards took me by the arms and dragged my limp body away. I soaked in the Great Room for what I thought was the last time. This was goodbye to Meghan and the Selected. This was goodbye to the smirking Queen Amberley and the shocked Alexandr and the king. This was goodbye to Cossette and to Luke who looked at me like he didn't even know me.

I was no longer just an outlaw to them who had tried to rob a bank to feed a starving child. I was a monster. I had attacked an innocent and would never be seen by them again.

I was taken into the hallway as they looked on in horror. I smiled at them all; a grin of the devil himself. They might think they had seen the last of me, but all of Illea would see my face that night and they would soon bow to their new queen.

"You really gave her a shiner," Max said as he walked into the dungeon I was being kept in.

"Her jaw really broke my hand too," I held up my black and blue hand.

He shrugged as he motioned for another officer to unlock my cell.

"This is Officer Arven, by the way. He's a good friend." Max and Arven both glanced awkwardly at one another and shifted their weight. I didn't press the matter, but something unspoken was conversed.

Arven nodded a greeting at me and fiddled with his keys. "Your lady with the camera is just outside."

"She doesn't know you've been arrested or why we are in the palace dungeon so you might want to avoid answering her questions about that unless you want her to change her mind about airing this."

I step out of the cell and nod slowly as I try to collect my thoughts. We are to meet at Bellingham. That is the most important news. I won't have to worry about Queen Amberley since I didn't exactly commit a crime. I was only eliminated.

"You might want to cover that up." Max takes my broken hand and I clench my teeth to keep from wincing. He doesn't seem to be bothered by my pain and wraps it up in a white cloth for me. "Go get 'em." He gave me one final bow as did Officer Arven.

I pushed my way into the hallway and was greeted by the pixie reporter. "Miss Mallory, how lovely for you to get in touch with me."

"It is good to see you, but I must say I am in a rush."

"Understood." She motions to the camera man behind her. "We are live with Miss Annalise Mallory here at the palace." She grinned at the camera and pulled me up beside her. "Miss Mallory I hear you have some important news to deliver?"

I take a deep breath and look into the camera. "Ladies and gentleman of Illea, I come to you tonight with a proposition. Change is needed in Illea and I think many of us can agree on that. No matter what you have heard, I can tell you that riots have been doubling everyday. If you want to fight for this cause meet at Bellingham. The place is mostly ruins. We must make haste with these plans as enemies of us will be joining us there as well."

I tried to imagine how we could avoid being caught by guards. We would all be executed for treason if they beat us there. Luckily, Max had already cut the connection of my broadcast from the palace. I would have a head start on them, but they would eventually find out about the meeting and come looking.

"This is a dangerous time and I can not promise the safety of anyone. But if you seek change as much as I do, the cost does not matter. An old founding father once said 'It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority'." I thought back to the memorized words of Benjamin Franklin form a textbook in Luke's hidden library. "I am questioning the authority of Illea and I suggest you all do the same. We will not be labeled by our castes for any longer."

I blinked slowly and found the courage to finish my statement. "Long live the rebellion."

Before the reporter could react or ask anything else, I darted away.

Max and Arven were waiting for me at the end of the hall to escort me to the kitchen. If someone did question why I was out of my cell they could say that Queen Amberley requested my presence and they were carrying out that request by retrieving me.

My heart pounded in my chest and almost exploded when alarms started to blare. An escaped prisoner. They knew I was out.

"Max you have to go. If they see you with me they will be suspicious of you. I can get to the kitchen myself."

He didn't question it. Arlen and Max turned in the opposite direction and I sprinted away as fast as I could in heels.

I pushed through the kitchen door just as a squadron of officers rounded the corner. Miss Petegry was alone in the dark kitchen.

"Hurry it along dear!" Her voice was hushed but urgent. "We haven't got all day. Follow the passageway out to the forest. It should be a clean getaway."

I balled my dress up into my fists and squeezed through the secret door that Lil had emerged from so long ago.

"Oh, Miss Mallory!" Miss Petegry held out a backpack to me. "Your maids packed you some things. We can't have you running around the slums in a ball gown now can we?"

I snatched the bag and hugged her tight. Her plump body pushed me away into the dark tunnel. Her eyes were wild looking and I could not mistake the sparks of hope that bounced around in them.

"Long live the rebellion," she whispered and sealed the door.

The tunnel was dark and damp and muddy. I could feel my lungs struggling with the space. I clutched my chest and tripped over my dress about a dozen times. The whirlwind of memories that beat my brain were unbearable. It felt like a lifetime ago that I was plotting out a scheme to rob a bank. That was so simple compared to the impossible mission I was trying to complete now.

Finally, the light from the moon shown into my view. I charged at it as fast as I could, which wasn't very fast with me slipping in the mud. When I burst out of the tunnel the castle was far in the distance. Every part of me was caked in mud and I needed to change out of my dress desperately, but I also feared the guards that would be looking for my in the woods that lie before me.

I slung the pack onto my back and stumbled around through the trees. I could still hear the defending alarms coming from the palace. I constantly reminded myself that all they knew so far was that a prisoner had escaped. They hadn't seen the video that had been released yet, there was no way. They didn't know that I was raising an army. When they did find out I planned to be well hidden from them and nowhere near the place where I had asked to meet everyone.

The sound of barking dogs sent chills down my spine. Run. Run. Run. My heart spoke the words with every pounding beat. My veins coursed with adrenaline and I didn't even feel the rocks jab into my sides, drawing blood, as I stumbled on tree roots.

Through the winding trees I saw city lights. I didn't know where I was, but I didn't care. This close to the palace I must have been in a city of Ones or Twos. I would stick out like a sore thumb in my muddy and torn dress.

I jumped a fence, my dress ripping on the wires. I was inside the city. It didn't take me long to slither into the darkest of alleyways.

I leaned my head against the back walls that surrounded me. My head pounded and my hands were shaking. Get up. I couldn't. I know I needed to get to Bellingham, but I had no idea where I currently was. How was I expected to get there before the troops probably on their way already? This was by far the worst plan I have ever thought of.

Just when I was sarting to calm down, a hand clamped over my mouth. Not just a hand, but a hand with a cloth that reeked of chloroform. I was out like a light.

Dreams can be taunting sometimes. They fill your mind with all the bad things that have happened to you. Or all the good things that you can no longer have.

I wake up in a coughing fit. My eyes adjusting to the bright lights that hang over my head. I can't see anyone, but I feel the scratching ropes that bind my hands to the wooden chair I am forced to sit in.

"Hello?"

My voice in unrecognizable to my own ears. It croaks out like I hadn't used it in days. Maybe I hadn't? It was hard to tell how long I had been asleep for, but my torn ball gown was still on my body, glued to my legs with mud.

"Good to see you again, Anna."

The voice that spoke to me from the darkness was familiar. I hadn't heard it in over two years, but it was like yesterday to me. He had been the man I trusted to keep Lil. I knew he did a poor job at it, but I didn't expect anything less from a dealer and con man.

"Dante." The bored tone of my voice drove him mad.

He stepped out into the lights and I took in every part of him from his tanned Mexican skin to the fresh scars that lined his face and neck.

I scoff at him. "Looks like you've been to hell and back."

He shakes his head. "I'm still in hell."

Dante might've been the type of man that only looked after himself, but I learned all my tricks from him. I learned to survive as a child from observing his skills about stealing. In a sad way I owe him my life for giving me shelter. He was the closest thing I had to any type of parent. He taught me to be tough and not to trust. That's why I especially don't trust him.

"What do you want from me, Dante? I was in the middle of something important."

This time it was his turn to scoff. "You call having a mental break in an alleyway important?"

I rolled my eyes and tugged at the ropes on my hands. My muscles and fresh wounds screamed. It was no use.

"Listen here, amigo. I am trying to help you."

"Oh, yes, pardon me. I forgot that helping someone meant tying them to a chair in some creepy warehouse looking shit-hole."

He grinned at me. "You haven't changed a bit." At my threatening glare he proceeded to explain himself. "I had you bound so you would go ballistic and attack when you woke up. I know you, you don't listen to others well."

"I do too, you piece of -"

He cleared his throat loudly and glanced at me, proving his point and shutting me up.

"Like I was saying," he continued. "After you sent out your important message about a rebel meeting, I knew a bloodbath was to follow. There was no way you could make it to Bellingham from the palace in what little time you had."

"I could've done it," I weakly protested.

He raised his brows and spoke to me like a child. "No. No, you could not have. I took it upon myself to gather up the legitimate people that were there for the cause from Bellingham and took them south of Angeles. Anna, let me tell you. People were turning on each other in Bellingham. It was something I had never seen before. My suspicion for the cause of all the fighting was that the higher castes had hired men to go out and fight those that showed up."

I shuddered at the thought. The upper castes were so threatened that they sent in their own troops to disarm the rebels. How haunting.

"That was before the king sent in his own men. They didn't even arrest people, Anna. They shot them on the spot. It was like they didn't even matter. The guards opened fire on anyone and everyone that was there. I got out as many as I could."

I had to blink back tears at the thought of Officer Max Chance being forced to shoot down thousands of innocents.

Dante cleared the sadness and memory from his throat and looked up into my eyes with a weak shrug. "I told you; bloodbath."

He lets me take in all the information for a few minutes before he starts to cut my hands free from the chair.

I finally get up the strength to speak. "Where is everyone now?"

He nods toward a set of rotting doors. "In there. We aren't many, but we can fight. We know how to survive."

I swallow hard and push open the doors, expecting ten or twenty people to look up at me and accuse me of the bloodbath Dante had described. Everything was my fault and I deserved an execution for it. I was the reason so many people met, hoping to join a cause and make a difference. Instead they showed up only to be mowed down by the king's men.

However, what I saw on the other side of the door was breathtaking. There had to be at least 500 people in the cramped room, looking up at me standing on the balcony above them. They all erupted into whoops and shouts when I stepped out. The people were all blood stained and grimy, but so was I in my disaster of a dress.

Dante stepped out beside me and put a hand on my shoulder. "It might've been a stupid thing you did with that broadcast, but I'll say it brought a lot of people together; people who had excepted their fate to be nothing more than shoveling horse shit on a farm for the rest of their lives now have something to look to: you. You gave them hope."

The yells of the people shook the tin walls and made me afraid that the balcony might rip away from the wall. I held onto the railing and wrinkled my bare toes on the ground.

The crowd fell to a hush when Dante put his hand up. "Time to light the fire in them, Your Majesty."

I watched him bow and shuffle back through the doorway. All eyes were on me. I had talk infant of a camera a dozen times for the Selection, but now that I was in front of an important audience I felt speechless.

Where do I start? Do I apologize for the loss I've caused? Do I think up an attack plan for them? Do I ask about strategies and weapons we may posses? I had no idea what they wanted from me.

"I have been told a million times that I was bringing hope into people who had nothing. I have been told that I am a queen rising from the dirt of the lowest caste. I have heard that I am a miracle to those who did not believe in such things." The silence of all 500 people bore into my and stung my ears. "But I am here to say that it was not me who brought hope to you, but you who have shown me how to live. I was nothing for years and years and years. My family didn't want me. When I entered the Selection I had people who saw me and they became what I never had. Queen Amberley has taken away everyone that I have ever loved." My voice was a dangerous tone. "Now we must take from her."

Many people called out in agreement.

"The revolution starts now. We attack in tomorrow night with all that we have."

The crowd cheered again, followed by a "Long live the rebel queen!"

My words were so cheesy sometimes it made me want to kick myself in the face. I walked off of the balcony and into the dust room with Dante. "How many weapons do we have?"

"Besides man made items and tools? Zero."

"Not a single gun?"

"Nope."

I sighed. "Well, looks like I know what our first trip to the palace will be for. We need to get to their armory and take everything we can carry. You lead the people to get weapons, that is if you won't desert them."

His glared at me. "I might've been all about myself back then, but you haven't seen me in years, sweetheart. I've change."

I cock a doubtful eyebrow at him.

"Alright I mostly changed. I know this is important, though. I would never leave these people behind. I want to see a change in the caste system as much as the next Seven."

I nodded. I completely understood him. He didn't like working with others, but if this was what it took to break the system then he was all in. "I can get you all inside. After that you need to cause as much damage as you can. Split into two groups. One group to vandalize and fuck shit up. The other to get to the armory."

"And what about you? You gonna sit back and eat popcorn while we risk our lives?"

"I have something else we need to get."

"And what's that?"

"You will think it's silly you illiterate pig, but I think it's about time we all had a history lesson." He stayed silent, not following. "There is a library of forbidden books. Trust me, they can help us. If we can look at how governments used to work than we can try to form it back into those."

"Those governments are no more because they didn't work. What makes you think they will now?"

I shrugged. "All I know is this one needs to change. So leave the book thieving to me."

He sighed with doubt and dread. "Alright. I'll brief the others and get to making as many molotov cocktails as we can hold."

I grinned. "That's the spirit."

My outer appearance told Dante that I was confident in my abilities to get them all in safely and get what we needed, but I was terrified. People could die during this; more blood on my hands. My heart raced up into my throat and I swallowed it back down, following Dante back onto the balcony.