Fractured (Slated #2)

by Teri Terry

I was already sixteen. It is illegal to Slate anyone over the age of sixteen. Lorders may break their own laws now and then if they have a reason, true enough. But why would they in my case?

After the UK pulled out of the EU and closed its borders, and after all the student riots and destruction of the 2020s, the Lorders dealt harshly with rioters, gangs, and terrorists the same way, no matter their age: imprisonment or death. But as things settled down, they were forced to accept compromise with Freedom UK in the Central Coalition, and harsh penalties were banned for under-sixteens. Slating was brought in to give them a second chance, a new life.

if he hadn’t taken a highly illegal Happy Pill. The pills that started all the trouble. And it was all because of Wayne: his attack, Ben’s inability to help. Slateds can’t use violence, even to defend.

one of the firefighters argued with the Lorders, and they shot him.” “They did what?” “They just shot him.”

I see the menace. This close to the hospital, there are Lorders in black operations gear at every corner. They stand in twos and threes, more of them than the last time we came this way. With machine guns. I see the signs of conflict: boarded windows, damaged and abandoned buildings spaced between ones full of life. And most of all I see the real damage, the eyes of a beaten people. In the way they hold themselves, where they look, where they don’t. It is much worse in London than in the country.

If you’re not with us, then you are with the Lorders and everything they stand for. You might as well have handed Tori over to the Lorders yourself. Snatched Ben and ended his life. Tossed the match that burned his parents alive. Think about it, Rain. Now, go.”

Seeing what scares you for what it is does not lessen the terror. It still has the power to break your heart, over and over again.