"Peris and Shay. Peris was kind of like my brother, too. We grew up together and did everything together, until he turned pretty and moved across the river." Tally looks at her right palm, which is still missing the scar that she and Peris had made together. Both that scar and its twin on Peris's hand are gone, destroyed along with their old skin. She rubs the place where it used to be, remembering.

"Then I met Shay after Peris turned pretty. She turned my whole life upside down. She's the one who gave me the idea that maybe not everything the government does is good." She turns her hand over and looks at the place where even more scars aren't: future scars, the ones Shay had encouraged her to make as a Special. "Things are pretty complicated with her, though," she says, totally understating it.