Marie Lu

I’ve wanted to kiss you, Hideo thinks to me, leaning closer, since the night I saw you in that white dress.

I refuse to believe that he’s nothing more than a monster. I can’t watch him sink like this. I keep going because I need to find that boy again, the beating heart buried underneath his lie. I have to stop him in order to save him.

He was once the hand that pulled me up. Now I have to be his

But sometimes, the need to protect the world from being controlled translates to seizing control for yourself.

“Touch her, and I’ll kill you,” Hideo growls.

Thief.

No, I reply as my final thought. I’m a bounty hunter.

Ten years ago, he was known as Day, the boy from the streets who led a revolution that saved the Republic of America. His name was spray-painted on buildings, his profile drawn on both rebel pamphlets and wanted posters. He went from being a notorious criminal to a national hero in the span of a year. There are documentaries about what he did during the war between the Republic and the Colonies, about all he had sacrificed. For his country, for me, he had nearly died.

That’s Day, Daniel Altan Wing, a legend. And that’s his little brother, Eden.