It didn't take long for Alex to come find me again. It had only been a day since we had kissed in the princess's suite when he came rushing up the front foyer steps towards the hallway of Selected bedrooms.

I had recently been making a habit of going to breakfast early so I could read before everyone else arrived, so I was surprised to see him up. Today, I had brought a book on psychology with me; it was painfully dry, but I felt like I needed to understand how people thought if I was to predict what the rebellions, rioters, and police force would do next. I was hoping it would give me the excuse to find him and present to him new ideas, but apparently he was the one coming, to me.

Alex, looking down at his feet as he took the stairs two at a time, jumped when he noticed a person at the top of the stairs, but then heaved a sigh of relief when he realized it was me. He looked out of sorts; his dress shirt hastily shoved into his waistband, and he hadn't even bothered to try and match the color with his pants. His hair looked how it did when he had been running his hands through it.

"Atlas!" he exclaimed, nearly tripping up the stairs, "I'm so glad it's you."

I looked down to grab my skirts, hiding my blush, and stepped down to meet him on the stairs. From where I stood, we were eye level. "What are you-" I started.

He didn't wait for me to finish. "We found your brother," he panted, putting his hand on my bare shoulder.

The book slide out of my hands with a rustle of papers and a heavy thud. I felt my knees go weak as a month's worth of stress flooding out of me. Immediately my eyes welled with tears and I threw my hands over my mouth to keep myself from sobbing, relief hitting me like a wave. "What-" I started, pulling my hands away from my mouth just enough to ask a question.

"He's fine," he assured me before I could even ask a question, "It's really him, and he's okay. I talked to him myself." He let his hand slide off my shoulder, the heat from his hand lingering to leave the rest of my skin cold.

I could barely see through my tears as I looked at the blurry prince, but I held back from throwing my arms around him. "How?" I squeaked out, my voice breaking.

He paused, looking up with furrowed eyebrows. "It's not. . . very clear," he explained, rubbing the back of his neck, "He wasn't found by any of my men. He was just dropped off at a service entrance early this morning right before deliveries started. No one saw who had dropped him off, but a guard noticed him during a patrol, and they recognized him from all the internal military reports we've been sending back and forth with the city police."

I realized I didn't care about all these ramblings, and quickly spoke up when Alex took a breath. "Where is he?" I asked, my heart aching at just the thought of seeing his face again. I was a second from kicking my heels off and running to him.

"He's safe. I assume he had been found by the northern rebels, but when I talked to him he didn't recognize the people and didn't mention any emblems," he prattled on, "Aristotle doesn't know what happened to Sjin, but he said it was a long train ride to get here so they were probably far away from the capital."

"Where can I find him?" I demanded, my face falling as I straightened my shoulders. Worry gripping my heart; Alex had ignored my question, and his eyes were flitting around the foyer, struggling to meet mine.

"He told me to tell you that he loves you and misses you, and that he watched you on TV and he thinks you're very strong and brave," Alex continued, evading my question again, "and he was adamant that I tell you he wasn't scared the entire time he was gone and couldn't wait to see you again."

I lost my patience, balling the prince's shirt in my hands and pulling him closer so that he couldn't turn his head away. "Alex. Where is he?" I growled, punctuating every word even as my voice shook with fear.

"Uh," he started, looking down and to his left, avoiding my eyes nervously. He glanced around, making sure no one could see us, before reaching up to grab my wrist and spinning to drag me down the stairs. I felt my heart soar as I thought he was going to bring me to him, only for it to come crashing down into my stomach as he pulled me into the alcove beside the stairs for privacy.

"Listen Atlas," he started cautiously, placing his hands on my biceps, "because of what's been happening, I didn't want anyone to know that he had actually been found."

"Alexandre," I threatened, the contents of my stomach turning to water as fear set in, "Where is my brother?" He looked around anxiously again when I raised my voice and took a step closer to me.

"I sent him to a safe house," he told me lowly, jumping in to continue when I opened my mouth in protest. ". . . but it's right outside the city. I sent some men from my secret service over to watch it 24/7, and I even contacted our old nanny," he let go to hold his hands out in front of me as a sign to calm down, "Her name is Kim, she basically raised us, I trust her wholeheartedly. She's a great person, she'll take good care of-"

My breath caught in my throat, the fear and anger and betrayal mixing inside of me so that I couldn't decern which one was the most powerful. I took a step back cautiously, willing this to just be dirty trick but knowing Alex was being honestly with me. "No. . ." I whispered, my voice breaking, "no."

"Atlas, you need to listen to me," Alex said lowly, his voice no longer passive and appealing, "he's not safe here at the castle." He closed the gap between us again, lowering his brow so that his eyes were cast in shadow as he unsuccessfully tried to intimidate me with his height.

"He's only safe with me!" I snapped, my voice rising with my anger as I took another step back, giving Alex a mortified and incredulous look, "Tell me where he is! I'll go get him myself!"

Alex winced and looked behind him, checking to see if anyone had heard me - not that I cared. All I wanted was my brother back, anything else a non-issue that was pushed to the back of my mind. I was going to yell at him again, but he shushed me and pulled me by the elbow to turn and push me up against the curved wall of the grand stairs. He was afraid I would bolt, and I didn't blame him because I was going to as soon as he told me where Ari was.

"I understand you're upset, Atlas," he started reservedly, clearly reigning in his patience and using his hand to signal to me to be quiet again, "but you can't leave the castle. We got lucky the last time; we could have just as easily been captured by the Southern Rebels, and especially because they're no longer operating discretely. I know you miss him, and I know how much you care about him, but he can't stay at the castle."

"Surely your family and Silver would make an exception so he could stay here until I left," I started, shaking my head, "it would be ridiculous to think that he-"

"Atlas! Listen to me," he demanded, cutting me off, "This isn't about the Selection, or its rules, or if he's allowed to stay here. I told you, it's not safe." I was surprised to see how close he was leaning down to me, considering what had happened the last time we were this close, but I couldn't care about that. I needed my brother.

"And I told you," I hissed in his face, "that only I could protect him."

"He'll be used against you," he insisted, holding his ground, "He will be a weapon."

"I can protect him!" I repeated, ready to say it until Alex believed me.

Alex squeezed his eyes shut, taking a deep breath. "You're strong, Atlas," he started, calmer, "unbelievably strong and resilient and in terms of life experience you are way smarter than me. But you don't understand what it's like here."

"I was whipped on national television!"

"It gets worse!" he shot back, shaking me with every word, "much, much worse. You need to trust me-"

"Trust you!?" I balked, slapping his hands away, "You're keeping my brother from me! How am I supposed to trust you!?"

"I'm not keeping him away from you, Atlas!" he insisted, throwing his hands out for emphasis, "You're stubborn as hell; if I tell you where he is you'll find some way to go get him."

"You sure as hell know I will," I threated, "so don't make this harder than it needs to be."

"Why won't you listen to me!?" he demanded, not keeping his voice down anymore.

"Because you stole my brother away and won't let me see him!"

"Grow up Atlas!!" he shouted, "The world doesn't revolve around you!"

The comment stung, especially because he was younger than me and a spoiled prince. I felt fresh tears coming, but they were hot and angry. "It doesn't revolve around you either!" I snapped.

"No, Atlas," he barked, leaning to the side to look at me from a different angle for emphasis, "It kinda does. Because there are hundreds of thousands of people who currently want me dead."

I bit back my retort, deflating slightly as I realized he was correct.

"And if they find out that I care about you," he appealed, "they will kill you. They will torture you. They will do anything to hurt me, and that means hurting everyone that's around me."

"Then why isn't he here?" I asked, not satisfied with his empty threats, "What? You're surrounded by guards, armed to the teeth, 24 hours a day, but they can't protect my kid brother?"

"They can't protect him against the king," he snarled in my face, "you've gone too far, Atlas, angered him too much. You're already in danger here and I can just barely protect you from him right now. I don't need more variables to keep track of, you're plenty."

I saw the chances of seeing my brother slipping away from me the more he talked, and it sent me into a hot rage. "Doesn't sound like you care about me that much if it's such an inconvenience to protect the only family I have left!" I shouted.

He straightened, giving me an incredulous look. "You're really going to say that?" he asked quietly, the bite taken out of his voice as it was replaced with guarded hurt, "After everything I've done for you?"

"Hey!" I snapped, not accepting his guilt trip when I was the one being kept from my brother, "You've been doing this voluntarily the entire time. I never asked you to do any of this!"

"You didn't have to!!" he shouted, shaking his hands out in front of him, "that's not how this is supposed to work! I thought you- I thought we. . ." He let his words trail off in a forceful sigh as he throws himself into a spin and walks away from me. I watched as he raised his hand to his forehead, using two fingers to press on his temples.

I let me gaze drop to the ground, realizing too late how childish I really was being. The hit to my pride was like a kick to the stomach, and I was having a hard time controlling my temper in a desperate attempt to gain control of the situation like I always did. I had embarrassed myself in front of him too much lately; I didn't want it to happen again.

"You know what?" he said after a minute, turning back to me and pulling me out of my thoughts, "I'm done." I felt my heart break when I saw the tears welling in his eyes. His jaw was tight as he kept his mouth from quivering, pacifying me.

"Done?" I asked evenly.

"With you, Atlas," he replied, hurt evident in his voice, "You have your brother back. You can send him a letter, but I'm not telling you where he is. I don't want anything else to do with you." I felt my blood go cold.

"But what about the. . . plans?" I asked, trying to be discrete about the rebels while still reminding him of the gravity of the situation, "What are we going to do-"

"There is no 'we,'" he barked, "I don't need you!" A tear escaped his eyes, rolling down his cheek and under his chin while he bit his lip. "I don't want to need you!" he continued scathingly, "I need to do this alone, and all you've done is proven that! I trusted you! I foolishly trusted you when you said you wanted to help, and yet you've just been thinking about yourself this entire time."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, the anger I tried to inject into my voice sounding weak and hollow. The last thing I wanted to do was cry in front of him. He was being unfair, but I knew there was some truth in his words. It wasn't the entire time, but I was often only thinking about him in terms of how he was affecting me, and the realization made me feel disgusting.

"You weren't even supposed to be here!" he shot at me, "You were planted here like a fucking virus, and you've been doing your job fantastically!" The anger in his eyes reminded me of his father, but there was also an unbridled pain mixed in that I recognized all too well from Alex.

"Like the Selection was actually random," I replied, mustering any rage I had left in me, "Everyone here was handpicked-"

"Handpicked because they had potential! Because one of them is going to be the future queen of a country the size of an entire continent, and she needs to at least be competent!" he interrupted, his words like daggers, "What do you have, Atlas? An inflated ego because you think your ability to steal and fight makes you better than everyone else here?"

His words cut deep, but I knew they were unfair. "You lived your entire life in a castle, isolated from the rest of the society, lapping up every word your daddy and your advisors tell you because you don't know any better," I shot back, jabbing a finger at him, "You don't know the first thing about this country, and you're supposed to be running it in a few years?! You didn't even know how broken this system was until I came here and told you; you would have become exactly like your father if I didn't wake you up!"

At the mention of his father, I saw the blood drain from his face, but he quickly recovered. "Any of the Selected could have done that, Atlas," he scoffed, trying to cover up the reaction, "All you've been doing is keeping me from them."

"What? I'm not preventing you from dating other Selected!" I replied incredulously, "how is that my fault!?"

He gave an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes. "God, you're dense," he commented bitterly with a sarcastic huff of a laugh, "I can't believe you still don't get it."

"I'm dense!?" I repeated shrilly, "Alex, you-"

"Don't call me that!" he yelled, interrupting me as his hand cut through the air, "And whatever you're going to say, I don't want to hear it. You're not my Elite, Atlas, you've made that clear enough. So, go or stay, I don't care what you do. Ross is the one who can dismiss you, I don't want any part of it, and as soon as you get out of my home you can get your brother back."

He whirled around, not waiting for an answer, and stalked away before I could think of anything to say. I ran back around the banister, throwing myself up the stairs and stopping only long enough to scoop my book up. I didn't even have the energy to process everything that just happened, let alone figure out what I was feeling about it. There was only one thing I was sure of. Something inside of me had broken, and I didn't think I'd ever put it back together again.