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together. “I’m sure it’s not as bad as it seems. I doubt the people who love you want to lose you. I know I couldn’t lose my Faye. I’d have no life without my family.”
    I look away from him toward the ground. I feel the same way, and that’s why I’m here. I need to save them, and selfishly, I need to know about Thorne. I have to know. “I just need to keep going.”
    “Then let’s go.” Bayard groans as he stands and wipes some breadcrumbs from his beard. I get up too, reach for my pack, and we start off again, led by the unsteady light of the torch.

40 DAYS BEFORE ESCAPE
    THE STARS ABOVE US provide the only light, and it’s unsteady, a deep contrast to the waves. Waves so calm that it makes me nervous, as if in the silence Xenith can hear my heart racing and the crashing of my thoughts. I dig my toes into the sand, but I can’t be reading this. It’s really real, the Old World, and everything else is false. They lied. Everyone’s been lying.
    I crumple the pieces of paper in my hand before Xenith takes them away from me and straightens them out across his chest .
    “This is really happening?”
    Xenith nods, his expression grim. “I wouldn’t make it up. I told you there was a change coming.”
    I stare at the paper. Ultimate Compliance. The Elders want to use the branding to make everyone in the Compound into some sort of machine. Some kind of human that follows directions, doesn’t think, doesn’t question anything, and is emotionless. I knew they were up to something with twins, but with everyone? They’ll strip them of their own thoughts and feelings and move them all to a new Compound. The blueprints are enormous and fortified, bigger and better than even this one. They’ll start making transfers in two months. They already have a list of people and families they want to move .
    “They’ve mastered the way to make it so that no one questions. There’s already no free will, but this move will wipe away everyone completely. All traces of humanity and individuality-gone.”
    I think on that, and the pieces click together. “They’ve already started using it,” I say quickly. Xenith looks at me. “My father. That explains the change in him. They’ve changed him into something for their own use. He was never so heartless before.”
    I run my eyes over the list Xenith found of all the families set to move to the new Compound. People I grew up with, children I’ve taught during my placement, friends. The Bishop family is one of them-Sara, Kai, and Thorne. The only people I really love. My father has succeeded in taking Thorne away, just like he’d promised. I can’t let this happen. I can’t let them all be turned into whatever this is that the Elders are creating .
    Xenith clears his throat. “There’s one more thing that you should know, Neely.” He pauses, and I look up at him. He hands me a new sheet of paper. My eyes scan it, reading the slanted handwriting .
    Sara has mentioned that she’s noticed some potential effects from the twin branding. I shall examine that tomorrow and see what I discover.
    “What is this?” I ask .
    “My mom’s,” Xenith says. “She was the one who switched you at your birth. She monitored you for years, and then Thorne as well, until she died.”
    I knew that Liv Taylor had switched us, me for Thorne’s twin sister, but I didn’t know she’d been watching us. Why would she keep tabs on us? “What was she looking for?”
    “Not her. The Elders. She was trying to protect you.”
    Protect us from the Elders. None of this makes any sense. I look back down at the paper .
    Sara has reported back to me, and we believe them to be connected. They are small, but when one cried, the other cried. When one laughed, the other laughed. The full effects are entirely undeveloped unless I can get closer, but I suspect them to have some emotional alteration because of the branding. The effects will only increaseas they age unless it can be undone sooner. If