IN THE WRONG SKIN

omised

te smile. We were desperate-me, Malik, and three others. None of us had families worth going back to. We had hunger

f seats and the smell of cheap cigarettes and spilled

til nightfall to lock th

d was met with silence or a gun barrel. Food came once a day. Water, twice if we were lucky. And the

when

to work. We were

the cracked window, making a plan. We'd play along. Let them think we were obedie

er in my head than it

like wolves in the distance. They herded us out like livestock and made us line up behind a warehouse. I r

shootin

irst, but I know who die

ra

't loo

call out

ity itself would

oaked in someone else's blood, and I was standing in the mid

Didn't know the curfew.

der, closer-I thought it was the

ted a

my feet and never settled again. There'd been an ambush-a convoy wrecked, tires blown, bodies

when I

mped against a car door, was bleeding from his gut. I didn't think. I just grabbed the nearest t

d to save... h

into m

hen h

almost on us. I had no choice. I grabbed the man's coat-some high-quality wool thing-and slipped it over my ruined shir

ID in the coat pocket. I di

aught me. Guns raised. Shouting i

t run t

s ti

t them

questioned me. I said nothing. Not out of defiance-just... I didn't kn

ur pa

shoutin

burs

his eyes stormed in. "Who authorized

aight to me.

m, Your Highness... We'll g

in

pri

an in heels that could kill a man if she stepped wrong. She fell

sobbed. "You've r

e made my

n't s

dn't

let it

became Prince Eli

uld've died tha

anis

ook his