Proceed with extreme caution! Long ago, there was a plague in Ilya which caused it to be quarantined. It had no contact outside of its borders, and the people inside needed to find a way to survive the plague itself and over time, they evolved. The fast became faster. The strong unbeatable. Those good at hiding could become the shadows themselves. Many of the people became what are called Elite. But there were those who did not evolve, called Ordinaries. For decades, the two groups lived side by side with few issues, until King Edric. During his reign, a new sickness swept through the land. He claimed the Ordinaries had carried this disease (that was the reason they had not developed abilities themselves) and now their sickness was causing the Elites abilities to be weakened. Even though the disease was probably just a common illness, the king used it to instate the Purging. That was thirty years ago. Now, Paedyn is an Ordinary who lives in the slums with Adena, for whom Paedyn steals fabric and food. Paedyn must hide the fact that she has no ability. Only Adena, a Phaser who can walk through solid objects, knows. Kai is second son of the king and half-brother to the heir to the throne, Kitt, who he is currently sparring with. First, they use abilities then they use swords, and Kai beats Kitt in both. Kai is brash and callous and excellent at fighting, born to be an Enforcer, while his brother will make an excellent king with his compassion and how studious he is, along with his dual powers of fire and water. They have a run in with Blair, a general’s daughter who intends to catch herself a prince, but whom neither of them likes. She intends to fight in the upcoming trials. She wants to win them, but so does Kai. And though Blair is a strong telepath, called a Tele, Kai’s ability is quite unique. He can use the power of anyone around him. He can wield water and fire when near Kitt or he can use Blair’s telepathy, even against her. After leaving Blair and stopping in the kitchens, Kai is called to see his father. Paedyn starts her day by noticing that there are two fewer guards than there should be, although she’s not sure why. Then she robs a shop apprentice, bumping into him and taking three of his six shillings. But while she pickpockets him, she feels a piece of paper inside a hidden pocket and takes that too, out of curiosity more than anything else. She finds a shadowed alley where she can read the paper: the meeting starts at 12:15 am, bring the supplies. The note specifies the meeting location and that is what really catches Paedyn’s attention. The location used to be her house, back before her father died and she had to live in the slums. Back before she met Adena (Adena was running from a guard and phased through Paedyn, who tripped the guard to help her and an alliance was formed). Now Adena uses the fabric Paedyn steals to sew and sell while Paedyn robs. Paedyn sees a young boy getting whipped, probably for stealing, and walks away since she cannot help him. She tried that once and it only made it worse for her and the person she was trying to save. She turns to walk away and runs right into an Imperial Guard who asks what her ability is, he’s allowed to ask anyone he wants to on the order of the king. She tells him she’s a psychic. He tells her to prove it. She looks at him and notices the alcohol on his breath, his wedding ring moved from his left hand to his right, and the way he ogled her and tells him that his wife left because he cheated on her, but that he wants her back. Apparently the truth hurts, he backhands her and tells her to get lost. She goes to meet Adena for lunch. Paedyn warns Adena at lunch about the missing guards and tells her to be careful. Paedyn messes with her ring and her dagger, the only tokens she has from her father, before heading back to work. She is nearly done for the day when she spots an Offensive, likely an Elite who is of high status or possibly even Royal, with a heavy bag of coins. She decides to take at least half of the coins and does her usual bit of running into her mark and pretending to be clumsy. The man flirts with her a bit, but she manages to get the coins and get out. Kai goes to his father in the throne room. He has a difficult relationship with his father though it is not always bad. Kitt, on the other hand, loves their father. His mother died giving birth to him and he has been raised to be king, attending council meetings and listening to treaties being written. Kai with his Wielding ability will become the Enforcer (the king’s right hand, commander, and executioner). His training was of an altogether different sort and involved suffering, a lot of suffering. His father tells him reports of a family on Loot Alley who has been accused of sheltering an Ordinary, Kai needs to take care of it if it’s true. The punishment for the Ordinary is death, for the family harboring them banishment into the Scorches, the desert around Ilya. They could potentially make it to one of the cities on the other side of the Scorches but it’s unlikely. Kai, accompanied by two Imperials, seeks out the family. He uses his gift to see that the mother is a Healer, the father is a Brawny (very strong like the king), and their two sons have Mundane powers of Bluff and Hyper (I.e. detecting and heightened senses, respectively). As both parents are Elites, their children are guaranteed to be born Elite though they may not be strong. Kai quickly finds a trapdoor in the floor where a little girl is hiding. The mother reveals that she couldn’t have more children, and they wanted a daughter, so they adopted this one from the streets when she was a toddler. After a fight, Kai has the family tied up and taken quietly by the Imperials to the gates for their immediate banishment. He will take care of the girl, Abigail. But he doesn’t kill her. He sneaks around and sees the family already walking across the Scorches and the guards walking away from the gate in the other direction. He uses one of the guard’s quickness, Flash, to run the little girl to her family. He leaves her with them, committing treason, and even gives Abigail a small knife for protection, before returning to the city. They may not make it to the cities of Dor and Tando but at least they’ll be together. He still feels terrible about the whole situation. On his way back through the slums, he runs physically in Paedyn. He is her mark with an excess of coins. This is when they flirt, and she lifts his coins. While she does that, he tests her ability and feels nothing. He’s startled and she walks away, he lets her instead of calling her back. He just lets an Ordinary walk away. He’s just committing treason left and right today. He turns down an alleyway and is jumped by four men: two Brawnies, one Blazer, and one Crawler who can literally crawl up walls. They want his coins - which is when he realizes his purse is substantially lighter than before. He fights the men and is winning when another man steps into the alley. Just today, Kai has seen Shimmers on the street, who can pinpoint their ability into a laser, and other Defensives who can throw up a shield. But this man is a Silencer, able to suffocate another’s power. This Silencer is incapacitating more than just Kai’s ability but his mind and body too. He feels like he’s going to die and a crowd forms around them, watching. Just before Kai passes out, he sees silver hair come up behind the Silencer. Silver hair just like Paedyn’s. Seeing Kai on the ground reminds Paedyn of when her father died, when he was killed and she watched him die - unable to do anything to save him. She won’t let that happen again today. She attacks the Silencer and all the training her father instilled in her lurches to the surface. As she beats the Silencer, she remembers how her father was stabbed through the chest with a sword… by the king. After she knocks the man out, guards come to help Kai, and she realizes he is the prince. She tries to run but Kai grabs her. The Silencer is imprisoned but Kai wants to know why he can’t feel any power from her. She makes something up about her Psychic power being mental and weak - he asks for a demonstration. Seeing the raw knuckles and the dusty shoes, she correctly guesses that he banished several someones to the Scorches, but they fought back before they went. In addition, since she’s heard nothing about this from the gossip mill, she guesses that he wanted it done quietly. She fools him and he leaves. She gets back and gives Adena all the details. The next morning everyone in the slums is watching her, knowing what she did the day before. She notices a banner announcing who will take part in the trial coming up, which celebrates the purge. Kai and Blair, as well as six other contestants. And right at the end of the list is her name. Paedyn Gray. Kai tries to get information from the Silencer that attacked him but has no luck. He takes another, stronger Silencer (their power works on other Silencers, too) and they put the Silencer in a Mute cell - made from materials that Transfers had imbibed with the power of Silencers so it can smother abilities. He tells his father and Kitt that he’s gotten nothing from the prisoner. His father believes the Silencer is with the Resistance, who believes that Ordinaries should not be killed. He also believes that some Fatals survived though he had them all killed during the Purging, and those who survived have joined the Resistance as well. The royals could be overpowered because of them. The king tells Kai to either get information from the prisoner or kill him. Kai is in a mood while training, thinking about Paedyn, which his brother Kitt has definitely noticed. Jax, whose parents died in a shipwreck when he was a child and who has become like a younger brother to the princes, comes to chat and he and Kitt tease Kai. Soon enough, Kai sees Blair and Sadie (a Cloner) coming to talk. They give Kai a flyer announcing the contestants. He finds out that Jax is going to be competing and that makes him more nervous, he will now need to protect both of them during the trial, but it’s a huge honor to compete so Kai is happy for Jax in that regard. Then his eyes snag in Paedyn’s name. Before Paedyn even has a second to think, an Imperial comes to take her to the palace. The trials start in two weeks, but she will do interviews and training during that time. She’s given a few minutes and runs to say goodbye to Adena. When she returns to the guard, there’s a young girl with him. They go to a carriage with a boy waiting inside. His name is Ace, he’s an Illusionist, and he’s rude. The girl is Hera, and she is a Veil. She can make herself disappear. The contestants are given rooms in the palace and personal Imperial guards - Paedyn’s is named Lenny. The contestants are kept isolated in their rooms for two days before attending a welcome banquet with all the contestants and the king and queen. Paedyn gets ready for the dinner with a bath but doesn’t know what to wear. She peeks her head out the door to ask Lenny, but she meets someone else instead. Someone who is quite charming and seems kind, who introduces himself as Kitt. As in Prince Kitt. Soon, Paedyn’s maid Ellie comes to help pick an outfit from the clothes provided to her and get Paedyn ready for the dinner. Ellie quickly warms to Paedyn and tells her that she heard these trials are going to be different, but she doesn’t know how. Paedyn is the last contestant to arrive at dinner, and they all introduce themselves. Soon the king and queen enter and give a rousing speech about what an honor it is to fight in the trials. Then they eat. During dinner the queen and king ask Paedyn about her abilities and saving their son, the king has never met a psychic. She explains that it’s a rare and not particularly powerful gift, according to her father, but it has its perks. The king reveals he knew her father, who was a skilled Healer. He would come to the palace to help in the winters when their own Healers were overwhelmed. For the next couple of days, the contestants train together though none of them use their powers yet. Interviews will start in the next few days, which will allow the public to get to know the contestants and choose who to back. Paedyn gets a look at Kai and Kitt’s matching tattoo over their hearts which is supposed to represent the different magics working together in Ilya and the four surrounding landmarks: Plummet Mountain in the north, the Shallow Sea to the west, the Scorches to the East, and Whispers Forest to the south. Paedyn practices throwing knives, she’s very good at it, and Kai distracts her by throwing one at her head. She ducks and then rounds on him, but he insists that he knew she would duck, or he would not have thrown it. He’s always very flirty. Paedyn is not so lucky with Blair, who throws a blade while Paedyn talks to Kai and knicks Paedyn’s ear. Blair explains that she’s just marking her target ahead of time. Kai braids Paedyn’s hair back for her and recommends she gets her ear healed. Paedyn prepares for the interviews with Ellie, who tries to settle Paedyn’s nerves. She’s escorted to the Bowl, which is basically a giant amphitheater. She can see the Pit, where the trials will take place. The contestants are taken to a room to wait until the interviews start. Pae speaks to Andy, who reveals that she’s Kai and Kitt’s cousin and lives at the palace as a handy, she and her dad fix stuff. Paedyn talks to Kitt a few times and every time she is thrown off by how much he looks like his father. It is disconcerting and she has to remind herself to play the role she needs to play in order to survive and be friendly to Kitt. Then the contestants are all paraded out and shown off. Jax shows his Blink power, he can teleport. Braxton is a Brawny. Andy can shapeshift. They all give a demonstration of their power meant to wow the crowd. Then it’s Paedyn’s turn. She speaks to the host, Tealah. They talk about Paedyn saving Kai, life in the streets, and her power. When asked what she wants out of the games, the correct answer is the kingdom’s motto: to honor my kingdom, my family, and myself. That answer has been given by every other contestant. But instead, Paedyn says she expects to survive. Afterward, she has Tealah call down random audience members, and she uses her observation skills to “read” them. The crowd eats it up. Kai still has to work while he trains, but all he can get out of the Silencer is a name: Micah. Kai thinks it’s his name. The next morning, Kai stumbles into Paedyn before breakfast. Easy to do since their rooms are directly across the hall from each other. It’s too early for breakfast so he sneaks her into the kitchens, his frequent haunt, and she gets to see a different side of him. Later, Kai spars with Kitt, who complains about how penned in his life is since he’s going to be king one day. He’s not even allowed out of the palace! Then Kai sees Paedyn practice fighting alone like she usually does, but he can tell something is bothering her this time. She’s sloppy like she normally isn’t. He goes over to bother her and distract her. It turns into a no magic fight and Kai goes easy on her. That only enrages her further. He ends up with a broken nose and a dagger thrown at his head before she tells him not to go easy next time. At dinner that night, Paedyn learns that she needs to have a proper dress for the upcoming ball honoring the trials. It’s in a few days. She tries to rush to her room after dinner but is stopped by Kitt, who escorts her. He asks her if he can accompany her to the ball and she eventually accepts - it will look good and it will be good for the country to see her with him. Then she begs Ellie for help picking out a dress. They decide to hire a seamstress, and Paedyn’s thoughts go to Adena. Guiltily enough, it’s pretty much the first time she’s thought of Adena since leaving the slums. Ellie says she will send Lenny to get Adena and if Adena accepts, she will come to the palace and be Paedyn’s seamstress until the end of the trials. Win-win-win. Kai surprises Pae by knocking on her door and offering to teach her how to dance, which she initially refuses but eventually accepts the offer. She gets to see his real bedroom (he’s currently in the same wing as the other contestants but that is not where he usually stays) and the dancing does not go well. She will need a lot of practice. The next day, she goes with Lenny to pick up Adena. Adena thanks Pae profusely for not forgetting her and Pae responds that she never will, knowing full well that she didn’t think about Adena for days. Adena starts to brainstorm ideas for the ballgown and what color green they might use, green being the color of Ilya and the unofficial color the women wear to the ball, but Paedyn has a different idea. At the ball, all of the men arrive first dressed in black. When the queen arrives, fashionably late, the women are allowed to make their own entrances. Kai has been trapped into bringing Blair and he begins to feel the regret right away. When Paedyn shows up, she’s dressed completely in silver to match her hair, the “Silver Savior” as people have called her since rescuing Kai. Kai watches Pae dance with his brother, remembering all their dance lessons, and feels jealousy though he believes that he shouldn’t. Soon enough, Kitt goes to get some drinks, and Kai takes his chance to dance with Paedyn. While they’re trading flirty jibes at one another, the ballroom is attacked. A throwing knife grazes Pae’s arm and Kai pushes her to the ground, guarding her body with his own. There are explosions and screams. Kai throws up a forcefield and takes Pae to the guards at the outskirts of the room, instructing them to take her to a safe room, but she refuses to go. So, he carries her there himself. While being carried, she sees the man that she robbed and took the note from his pocket. She realizes from what he was buying in the slums that day that he made the leather armor for the attackers. On the way to the safe room, she and Kai run into Kitt who is also refusing to go to a safe room because he wants to fight (Pae has noticed that the attackers are Ordinaries, and she wants to get close to them) but Kai begs Kitt to stay safe. For the kingdom, for him. Kitt will do it, but he’s bitter about it. Once in the room with the king and queen, most of the contestants, and some other nobles, Pae gets her arm healed up. Kitt paces until Paedyn demands answers from him. He explains about the Rebellion and how they believe the Ordinaries have teamed up with the Fatals - Elites deemed too dangerous to live with the other Elites, so the king had them banished from the kingdom. He only keeps one of each in his court: a Silencer, a Mind Reader, and a Controller. What he doesn’t understand is why the Rebellion was here today. Pae asks what he thinks about how Ordinaries were purged from the kingdom, or tried to be at least, it seems a lot more are there than they thought. Kitt spouts the same rhetoric as the king, that the Ordinaries are diseased and having them around makes the Elites weaker. He believes it’s true. After they’re released, Pae goes back to the ballroom instead of to her own room. She sees Kai badly injured with a throwing knife still in his back. She panics at seeing him hurt. She takes the knife out so he can heal himself and he tells her casualties were small. Two Elites and four Ordinaries, with only two taken as prisoner, so several got away. Then Kai heads to a meeting with the king and Kitt. The first trial starts the next morning. Kai wakes up from a drugged sleep in the Whispers, an ethereal forest full of threats (plant, animal, and contestant). Usually, the trials take place in the Pit where they can easily be viewed by the public and broadcast to the outside, but soon Kai sees a Sight, which records everything they see and can play it back later on. He finds a leather band on his bicep and a note in his pocket. Whoever has the most leather bands at the end of six nights wins this trial. Kai knows that this is set up so that the contestants will be forced to fight, also not what normally happens. His mind turns to Paedyn and how she is faring. He climbs a tree to find water and make his way towards it. On the way he finds a couple weapons and canteens. He catches a rabbit and starts a fire to cook it; he’s quickly interrupted by Brax. Neither of them wants to fight but neither wants to give up their band either. The start to fight all out but Brax gets Kai pinned between him and the fire, he ends up burning Kai pretty badly, but Kai gets the upper hand and takes Braxton’s band. Brax strides off and Kai wraps his burnt arm up, but he will need to find something to better stave off infection before too long. He can’t be dying because of this. Paedyn wakes up and is able to find a bow and quiver as well as arrowheads to make her own arrows, plus a shirt to put over her very skimpy silk one she wore to bed. She kills a rabbit and is looking for water when she spies a lake. She didn’t see it when she looked from above, but the lake is surrounded by trees so maybe that’s why. She heads towards the lake but when she gets closer, she sees Kitt’s dead body floating in it. She rushes toward him, which is when she realizes that it is not real. Then she sees herself as a girl starving and pleading for help and assumes she’s delusional, likely from lack of water. But she quickly becomes surrounded by young Paedyns and she realizes this is the work of Ace. She calls him out and shoots him in the leg, but she only shoots an illusion of him. The real Ace comes out and surrounds himself with copies of himself. It takes her a minute, but Pae realizes one Ace is sweating – that would be the real Ace. She shoots him in the thigh with an arrow just as Ace lunges forward and slashes her with a concealed spear. He cuts a big slash in her stomach, so instead of staying and fighting for his armband, she runs and tries to patch herself up. But she’s losing a lot of blood. She needs to find water to clean her wound and get rid of her dehydration, but she sees a fire first. She stumbles toward it, lightheaded and reckless, but it’s her only choice. It’s Kai’s fire. She aims an arrow at him, trying to hide her injury and pain while demanding that he leave the site. She falls from blood loss right afterward. Kai focuses on finding her wound instead of taking her band and leaving her for dead. He commands her to stay awake, but she just can’t. He panics when she passes out. Pae needs water and he struggles to find his canteens. When he finally spots them, he notices a small box of healing elixir with a needle and thread that Braxton must have dropped during their fight. What luck, it will be able to save Paedyn’s life. He applies the elixir to her wound, and the sting hurts badly enough that she wakes up. He talks to her, distracting her while he stitches up her wound by pissing her off then apologizing afterward. He explains about the elixir, and she asks if he killed Braxton, looking surprised when he says no. He asks who hurt her and after a few tries she tells him it was Ace and no, she didn’t kill him either. She asks why he’s helping her, and he tells her that winning by default is no fun. The real reason is that he wants to see her, talk to her, tease her. He’s intrigued by her and always wants to be around her, and he can’t stand the thought of not having her near. And although he’s been okay with playing along that the two of them are enemies, that is no longer going to work for him. He wants her to want him too. Paedyn asks what this means for the two of them, the fact that he patched her up and didn’t even take her armband in the process. He proposes they become partners. After a minute of thinking and deciding that the two of them trust each other at least a little bit, she agrees. Not much later, she realizes that his arm is badly injured and that he used all the healing tonic on her. She makes him a salve from the plants that grow near the water (thank goodness her dad was a healer) and they discuss his childhood. She has already told him that her father trained her how to fight since her “ability” was not physical, and how her mother died shortly after she was born, now Paedyn asks him to tell her about his life. He reveals that his childhood with Kitt was good, but when they weren’t together, they were training for their future roles. And for Kai, that meant torturing and being tortured. By the king, by other people too. But often by the king. Kai explains that he does not want to be king but mostly because he would never want Kitt to become what he is… a monster. A monster who was made without any choice in the matter, but who now knows the role he must play. After wrapping his arm up, they are attacked by several wolves. They fight them off together and decide they make a good team, even if Paedyn doesn’t take orders well. She declares she’s not one of Kai’s soldiers and he agrees with her, he doesn’t care about his soldiers. When she realizes that he has a bite mark on his arm from one of the wolves, she prepares another salve and jokes that he keeps getting hurt so she will touch him. He tells her he only wants her hands on him if she wants it too, she applies the salve even after hearing this. Three days later, they haven’t run into any other competitors, so Pae insists they split up. They meet that night at camp with nothing to show for it, but Paedyn has something on her mind. She wants to know, for real, why Kai didn’t take her band and leave her for dead. He doesn’t have an answer that he’s willing to share so to buy some time, he asks her to dance with him. He trades a dance for one of her questions, just like when he was teaching her before the ball. They dance and he asks her if it’s so surprising that he doesn’t want her to die, she just says yes. He tells her that he’s always watching her, that he can’t stop, but she just accuses him of being an incorrigible flirt. Then he turns the tables and asks why she didn’t shoot him before she collapsed. She says that just because she was going to die doesn’t mean she wanted him to as well. He points out that that doesn’t sound like she hates him, but he thinks because she doesn’t hate him, she hates herself instead. His father comes up, how she doesn’t like him, and his mother, that she allowed Kai to be tortured - but Kai doesn’t think she had any other choice. Their dance gets a little more tense in all the best ways and just as Paedyn is going to tell Kai something, they’re interrupted by Sadie asking for their bands. As they tell her no, Kai slips a throwing star into Pae’s hands since her own weapon is not in grabbing distance, and he still has his sword with him. Then Sadie strikes, grabbing Pae and putting a dagger to her throat. She threatens to kill Pae if Kai doesn’t give up his band, but Pae stabs Sadie in the stomach with the star and an all-out fight breaks out. A bunch of Sadies are fighting a bunch of Kais (both of them are using Sadie’s cloning power) and Pae just needs to find the real Sadie and disable her. Sadie finds Pae first with a couple of clones. Pae fights back well and takes out a few of the clones, she even gets the upper hand on Sadie but then one of the hurt clones grabs Paedyn from the back. Sadie murmurs that Paedyn is never going to give up and implores Paedyn to believe that she doesn’t want to do this, but she has no choice. Just as Sadie is about to plunge the dagger down and kill Pae, Kai stabs Sadie in the stomach, killing her, getting rid of the clones, and saving Paedyn. But now Paedyn is about to spin out since he killed Sadie to save her, so Kai distracts her for a moment until she’s calmer, then asks her to stay put as he moves Sadie’s body. Paedyn is antsy until Kai returns, and she realizes that he buried Sadie and even laid flowers on her grave. But only after grabbing her leather band so now they both have one. He lays down next to Paedyn and distracts her from thinking about what happened a little more so that she’s finally able to fall asleep, thinking about him and how he’s different from what she thought he was. The morning of the last day, they get instructions to meet at the edge of the Whispers. The king has orchestrated a bloody finale for the viewers. They meet Jax and Andy on the way, they’ve taken Ace’s and Hera’s bands, and had a run in with Blair where no bands were exchanged. When they all arrive at the edge of the forest, Blair steps out at the same time, followed by a desperate Braxton, Hera, and Ace. The three of them need a band. Braxton throws himself at Blair, then the two of them turn on Andy and Paedyn as Jax fights Hera. Kai turns to Ace and fights him fairly well until Ace uses Paedyn against him, showing an illusion of her injured. It gives Ace the upper hand until Jax throws Kai a throwing star. Ace throws up fake visions of himself, taunting Kai until Kai locates the real Ace and throws the star into his chest. That’s when Kai realizes that this too was an illusion, he just threw the star into Jax’s chest instead. Kai is immediately distraught and kneels next to Jax, his little brother, begging Jax to hold on. He wants to kill Ace more than ever, but Jax will die without a healer. He picks up Jax’s body (he’s not moving much) and uses Braxton’s Brawny power to carry Jax, sprinting towards the crowd gathered to watch the spectacle. There must be a Healer somewhere in there. When Kai gets close enough, he drops to the ground with Jax and pulls the star out of his chest, knitting the flesh as quickly as he can. He thinks he’s too late since Jax isn’t breathing, but a moment later Jax’s eyes open and they hug. The sun comes up, the first trial is over, and Jax is not dead. A few days later, the contestants are brought back into the Bowl so the first trial can be broadcast to the public, or at least the highlights. The crowd sees them fight and is charmed by Paedyn and Kai when they aren’t fighting. Pae watches the fights she wasn’t part of: Andy v. Blair, Kai v. Braxton, Hera v. Blair, and lastly the fight in which Braxton kills Hera, just before the end of the trial. That means there are seven contestants left: Andy with three bands, Kai and Paedyn each with two. Later, Kitt grabs Pae and asks to show her something, taking her to the garden. He asks her for her thoughts on the trials, saying that she may be the only person who doesn’t lie to him, and she tells him the trials are a tragedy. But Kitt still believes that the Ordinaries are diseased and can contaminate the Elites, making them weaker, though Pae points out that they lived together for decades without that issue. She asks what the point of talking is if he refuses to listen to her, but he points out that she won’t even look at him and asks her why. She can’t, because he looks too much like his father. She doesn’t say that, only explaining that he looks like someone she used to know, but she’s slowly realizing that though Kitt and his father may look alike, they are not the same. He brings up her vision of him in the trial and asks why she seemed distraught when she saw his body, and she explains that seeing that made her think of all the good that he could do, if he just ruled as he should and not as he was told to. She brings his attention to the huge fountain filled with shillings, money that could feed families in the slums that instead are just wasting away under the water. He agrees, saying that he will have them collected and dispersed. Paedyn doesn’t know if he will follow through, but at least he listened. They make a deal; he will listen to her if she can continue to look him in the eyes. Lenny doesn’t usually guard Paedyn’s rooms at night so she decides to sneak out to her old house where what she believes is the Resistance will be meeting. But when she arrives and picks the lock, the house is dark and empty. Or almost. A voice pipes up, saying he was wondering when she would finally show up. It’s her guard, Lenny, who is a Hyper who thinks that king’s logic doesn’t add up and has joined the Resistance. He takes her downstairs where she meets the Resistance leader leader, Calum (mind reader), and some more minor leaders of their own areas or cells, Leena (Ordinary), Calum’s daughter Mira (Silencer), and Finn (Ordinary), who she pickpocketed the Resistance note from. Calum explains that he knew Paedyn’s father Adam because he was one of the original Resistance leaders. The Resistance has existed for over a decade, locating Ordinaries and teaching them to survive. The cell leaders meet and make plans; those leaders then disseminate the plans to their own people. But the Resistance has recently begun to pick up steam, and the king can’t keep them hidden any longer. Yes, the Silencer that Paedyn beat up, Micah, was one of theirs who had a vendetta against Kai and let his anger get the best of him, getting him caught. As for the attack on the palace, that was supposed to be reconnaissance but some of the members got caught and needed to fight their way out. Those who didn’t get out took suicide capsules, so they didn’t get questioned or give up any information. And now they want Paedyn to join them, they’ve been waiting ever since they realized who she was (Calum thought she was dead before then). They intend to make their presence known to Ilya during the last trial which Lenny has heard will take place in the Bowl. They will need to secure the king during that time, and he will be in the waiting area below the Bowl. There is a secret passageway that leads there- Lenny has seen it - but he doesn’t know where it comes out. They need Paedyn to find out, using her relationship with Kitt if she needs to. Kai is in a terrible mood, killing your brother on accident will do that to a guy. It doesn’t get better when he sees Paedyn with Kitt in the training yard, talking and giggling together. When Kitt leaves, Pae approaches Kai and challenges him to a shooting match. It takes him a minute before he realizes that she’s distracting him from himself. Takes less time to realize that he’s going to lose, and she’s shooting with her left hand! So, he takes drastic measures and stands as closely behind her as he can, whispering and touching as she lines up. He can be distracting too. She doesn’t do as well this time, but she turns the tables and does the same to him. But instead of touching his skin, she doesn’t. Only brief little whispers and he needs more. He loses the match, turns around, and presses her hand to his chest firmly. Neither one of them knew he could be affected like that by the barest of touches. She leaves her hand on his chest for a moment before declaring Kai the loser. Pae is hanging out with Kitt in the kitchens and the differences between him and his father just keep piling up. In fact, she likes Kitt. They’re becoming friends. Short lived friends, she knows, since she is also using him to find the passageway she needs. When they’re kicked out of the kitchens, she tells him that he should see his people in the slums and how they survive so he can help them when he becomes king. He should break out of his gilded cage at least for one night, she’ll give him a tour. He says he’ll think about it before the king comes to get him for a meeting. He sends Kitt ahead but then the king turns to Pae. He makes it clear that she is not going to win in the trials (she’s tied for fourth after the scores from the first trials and the public voted) but he’s more concerned about her relationship with his sons. He warns her to stay away from them. The next night, she gets ready for the ball - she’s wearing red this time. She even admits to Adena that she finds Kai confusing and captivating, but she needs to keep her distance from him. Paedyn attends the ball with Kitt again, but he is quickly stolen away by Blair. Pae runs into Kai and spills his wine all over him. He was watching her dance with Kitt and now he’s drunk. They go into the shadows of the garden to clean him up and things get tense. And a little serious. Then he brings her onto the dance floor for a dance and after a moment is chastised by his mom for monopolizing her time (she calls him Malakai). He challenges Paedyn to give him a compliment, and she tells him that his hair looks soft, which gets her teased, so she changes it and accidentally says something honest. She likes it when he drops his mask and smiles at her for real, she wishes he would do it more. Like the way he feels when she laughs. She realizes that she really likes him and starts to have a panic attack, not helped by the super tight laces on her dress. Kai escorts her off the floor and back into the shadows where he loosens her dress for her and teases her into distraction. After she can catch her breath and is okay, he laces her up loosely and walks her back to her room. He returns to the ball and gets drunk with Kitt. Kitt asks about the Silencer and Kai admits that he killed him. Then Kitt asks for details about the girl on Loot that Kai was sent to find. Kai reveals that it was a young child and Kitt guesses that Kai let her go instead of killing her. Kitt guessed at his brother’s actions a few years ago and is the only person that knows that Kai does not kill the young Ordinaries. Kai is a trained killer, but he holds onto this line for himself. Kitt also talks about Pae, about how she tells him the truth, and he wants to know her better. He asks Kai about his thoughts on Pae, but Kai is not ready to discuss how he feels - which is enamored. Soon the dance floor starts to empty as people find their way to the arena. Braxton, Jax, and Ace wait to challenge Kai to a fun little brawl. He doesn’t want to do it and definitely doesn’t want to be drunk for it, but he knows what’s expected of him. The second trial starts the next day. But it’s not just the four of them fighting, Andy, Blair, and Pae were allowed to change out of their gowns before joining them. The contestants will be randomly paired for a fight, this is not normal for the trials but then again, nothing about these trials is normal. Kai gets Braxton and he pins him after a short fight. Andy gets Ace and their fight is over quickly when Andy pins him. Then it’s Blair and Paedyn. Kai gives Pae a few tips before she goes out. She’s stronger than Blair, use that to her advantage. And distract her opponent. It takes a few tries and Pae gets a cut on her cheekbone, but Blair leaves with a broken nose. The contestants are forced to fight several rounds until they are exhausted and at odds with each other, often having to be forced apart by Imperials to end the fight. Kai wakes up on Plummet Mountain - feeling like shit between the fighting and the drinking and the drug they used to get him to the mountain unaware. He sees a note scrawled on his hand “she said I could touch her when I’m sober.” Something Pae said the night before, taken slightly out of context, but he doesn’t want to forget it. Andy, Braxton, and Blair wake up nearby. Their instructions say that they need to work as a team to reach the summit of the mountain and beat the other team: Paedyn, Jax, and Ace. Of course, they were forced to fight the night before to cause discord and now they need to work as a team. They start their climb, which the instructions say will go on all night (it’s already past midday). About two hours in and Blair is chucking rocks at Andy’s head when Andy screams. Not because of the rocks, but because she’s been bitten by a snake. In fact, they’re surrounded by snakes. Kai focuses Blair and the two of them use her telepathic powers to hurl the snakes out of the area. Once they’re clear of the most immediate danger, they need to get to the top before something happens to Andy. Kai carries her on his back. Paedyn’s team is making slow progress, marching for hours without food or water and yet the summit remains far away. Ace is upset that neither of the others wants to talk to him (consequences, my friend) and causes an illusion of a snake near Pae’s ankles that nearly causes her to fall down the mountain (not helping), but Jax blinks and saves Paedyn before she falls. He tells her his brothers would probably never forgive him if he let her die. He wonders how Kai is doing since he’s afraid of heights and reveals that Kai’s “training” was not always physical. The king used to force Kai to climb the highest trees in the Whispers until the king believed that Kai’s fear of heights was gone. After all the different training sessions, Kai would return to his room covered in blood and sunk within himself. That’s when Kai would attack his bed posts with his sword, Paedyn saw all the notches when he taught her how to dance. Soon enough there’s a rockslide and they have no choice but to try to dodge the rocks and not fall. Pae gets hit in the temple with a rock and may have a concussion, but they all make it out alive - even Ace. Andy is fading fast but their group is finally nearing the top of the mountain. They reach the peak at the same time as Paedyn’s team and receive a message from the waiting Sights. The game isn’t over yet. There will only be one winner, whoever claims the green flag in the center first. Pae takes this chance to bunch Ace in the face, she’s been wanting to do that for hours (or since they met). They fight and Ace starts to choke her with a stick she can’t see. She goes limp, which forces him to let go of her. He thinks she’s passed out from lack of oxygen and approaches her with a rock; he’s going to kill her. She grabs him and breaks his arm instead, sitting on top of him and is ready to kill him for the multiple attempts on her own life. But then she spots Kai and knows it’s not her life to take. Ace almost made Kai kill his own brother, too cowardly to do it himself. So she nods to Kai, and he comes over. He checks her over first to make sure she’s not hurt, then tells her to go grab the flag as he turns to Ace. She does just that. Kai killed Ace and Blair killed Braxton. She actually tried to kill Paedyn, but Kai deflected the blow, which then hit Braxton. It’s been days since then and he’s returned to training with the court Silencer, learning to use that power. Now he’s in a meeting with the king, who finds it interesting that Paedyn won the last trial. Slummers. Don’t. Win. And Kai must win the whole thing - or else. Kai leaves the room followed by Kitt. Kitt says he understands why Kai’s relationship with their father is strained after all of Kai’s training, but everything the king does is for the best. Kai scoffs. He used to cut Kai open to make Kai sew the pieces back together himself… to train him. So that he would become a monster for him and Kitt to use as they pleased. This strikes Kitt, hurts him. Kai tells him he thinks Kitt will be a great king who he will serve proudly. But he needs to think for himself because the king won’t be there to do it for him forever. Pae retreats to the gardens to sit under a low hanging tree that’s she’s started to use as a haven of sorts, only to find Kai already there. He’s been using this spot for years. In fact, he fell out of this tree once and broke his arm. One of his many broken bones. He reveals that when he was learning how to heal, he had to break his bones to heal them back together. She is struck by how similar their childhoods were, each being trained by their father to make them more than what they were. The difference is their fathers. Hers did it out of love and concern, his out of greed. He teaches her how to thumb war, and it ends with him stroking her arm up and down and Paedyn announcing that she should leave. He points out that it doesn’t really sound like she wants to. Paedyn has made zero progress on her mission for the rebellion. She, Adena, and Ellie prepare for the final ball the next day when they’re interrupted by Kitt. If Pae thinks she can get him in and out of Loot without being recognized, then he wants to go with her. He wants to see his people. He wants to start making his own ideas. They go right then. He takes her into the dungeons to the last cell where he presses a specific brick, which opens to reveal a keyhole. The key is always kept on him, he shows it to her on his keychain. They enter a tunnel that branches off toward the training grounds but they’re going to go to the other exit, in the waiting room of the Bowl. This is exactly what Paedyn needed to see. They get to Loot, and he’s overwhelmed by the smell. He sees the thieves and the people performing for money. He sees homeless tents and children without families. He sees where they are whipped for stealing. And he sees where Paedyn sleeps. He thanks her for trusting him with this, with her. He needed to see all of this. She thanks him for trusting her too. That night she visits the rebellion leaders, except Mira, who is tending to her mother. Paedyn explains about the tunnel. She tells the others she can get the key from Kitt at the ball the next day. Since the trial will start the following morning, he won’t have time to do anything about it before the rebellion reveals themselves. She will pass the key to Lenny, who will enter the passage and let anyone else through the door at the training grounds. Kai has nightmares that night. Of Paedyn killing herself by putting her dagger in her heart. Of Jax with a throwing star in his chest. Of all of his victims. Pae can hear his screaming from her own room and goes to comfort him. She goes into his room and wakes him, but at first, he’s discombobulated. He pins her to the mattress with a dagger to her throat before he realizes what is happening. When he does, he puts the dagger away and looks disgusted with himself. After a minute of staring at each other, she stands to leave but he asks her to stay. She does, crawling into his bed, realizing that he expects everyone to leave him. He curls up around her and thanks her for staying. She’s surprised but she admits that she shouldn’t be after learning more about him. She feels safe, content, and happy in his arms and falls asleep to him braiding her hair. He barely sleeps, intent on memorizing her face and savoring every moment she’s there. In the morning, he goes and gets them breakfast. The tension is palpable and they almost kiss, but at the last moment, she takes a step back and goes to her own room to prepare for the ball. That night she dresses in dark blue and silver like the sky at midnight. Kai thinks she looks incredible, he’s so tired of fighting against his feelings. But she’s here with Kitt. For a minute he forgot that he isn’t the person who gets what he wants. He’s a monster created to be used by the king – and he doesn’t deserve her because of what he does. She dances with Kitt and feels incredibly guilty but manages to slip the passage key off of his ring and steal it without Kitt noticing. She passes the key to Lenny, then dances with Jax. The dance leads her to Kai, who knows she’s avoiding him. Suddenly the room feels too small and when the song ends, she rushes to go outside. Unfortunately, she’s stopped by an Imperial that says she doesn’t have permission. Kai stops the Imperial as the guard gets grabby and demands that Pae be allowed outside, regardless of if they’ve been told the contestants are not allowed to leave. Kae follows Pae as it starts to rain and they’re quickly soaked. He tells her he can’t stop thinking about her and he wants to be with her - he knows she feels it too. She denies it but he doesn’t believe her. He kisses her, just a whisper of a kiss, and she wants more. But they’re interrupted by an Imperial who says the King needs Kai urgently. When Kai arrives, the King just wanted to interrupt them. He doesn’t want his son with a Slummer, the people shouldn’t see them together, and Kai realizes that the king hates Pae in particular. Just like how Pae hates the king. Kai nearly kisses control of his powers but luckily, Kitt is there to defuse the situation. The last trial starts the next day. It’s a maze that changes thanks to the Elites manipulating it, Blooms. The contestants need to make it to the center of the maze and kill the person held there- rest assured they deserve it. They have committed treason against their country. Kai sees Paedyn before they enter the maze, and they share a smile before disappearing from view. She runs into the maze but hits nothing but dead ends, growing more and more frustrated as she goes. Then she realizes that the path is growing thinner. The hedge is going to enclose her in its thorny branches and kill her. She runs for the next path, which is not narrowing, and almost makes it but one of her legs is encased by the thorny bushes. She has to pull her leg out since she doesn’t have her dagger, and the thorns pull at her boot until it comes off, then shreds the skin of her ankle and foot. But at least she’s free. After more dead ends, the path narrows again but this time there’s nowhere to go. Pae doesn’t run but the maze eventually stops narrowing, and she has just enough room to walk with the bushes brushing her shoulders. Only one contestant can get through, which will force them to fight each other just like the king wants. Soon enough, she runs into someone else. Kai is having just as much trouble when the hedge paths narrow to the width of one person. The first person he meets is Andy, who is in her jaguar form. Problem is, the longer she shifts the harder it is for her to remember herself and Kai can tell from her eyes that it’s been too long. She attacks him and he tries to use Jax’s power to get away but Jax moves out of range. Kai is forced to fight her as another jaguar, but he can’t stay in form long or he will also forget. By the time he switches back into his own body, he’s very bloody, full of gashes from her claws with one bad bite in his shoulder. He runs, he hears screams, and then a Bloom comes too close and he’s able to use their power. Blair nearly kills Paedyn (she wants to, but she doesn’t want to make it quick) when Pae is able to distract her and knock her out with a punch to the temple. It won’t last long, so Pae runs quickly. After more wrong turns she sees the path to the center in front of her. Kai opens the maze up with the Blooms’ power before they realize what’s happening and he makes it to the center of the maze before they can stop him. Just as Pae walks in on the opposite side. She doesn’t see him. She only sees the prisoner waiting in the middle and takes off running for them. It’s Adena. Paedyn gets to her before anyone else and Adena only has enough time to say she’s sorry before Blair follows Paedyn into the circle and uses a tree branch to impale Adena through the chest. Pae begs Adena to hold on but Adena just makes her promise to wear the green vest she worked so hard on. Paedyn promises never to forget Adena and blames herself for the fact that Adena is even here. It was supposed to be her that died in the arena if it was anyone, Adena shouldn’t even be around. Kai wants to help but he doesn’t know how. He sees Jax come out, followed by Andy, now human again. He hears the screams of the crowd as they celebrate Blair’s win. He makes his way over to Pae and then notices as the crowd’s screams turn to those of terror. He looks to find the rebellion holding his parents and his brother. No one in the crowd is fighting back, the Mute that the Bowl is made of makes sure they can’t. But neither is his father who is in the Pit. Then Kai feels it, they’re surrounded by Silencers. Pae’s hate for Blair, hate for the king, threatens to overwhelm her but then she notices the Resistance. They’re here. They escort the royal family close to the contestants as Calum introduces them. They are Ordinaries. They are Fatals. They are the Resistance. And they want to rejoin Ilya. If that is amenable to the king, they all win. If not, they will kill the princes. Pae was not told about this part of the plan. She looks at Kitt, and he glares back at her. He looks exactly like his father now and she knows that he knows how the Resistance got inside. Meanwhile, Kai has been training to use Silencer powers, and he overpowers the Silencer holding him before erupting in Kai’s flames. He doesn’t understand why, if what the Resistance says is true, if Ordinaries have lived among them this entire time, that the Elites’ powers have not dwindled. But now is not the time to puzzle it out. He lights the Silencers on fire. Pae runs, leaving Adena’s body behind, leaving the Resistance to fight without her, and is reminded of the last time she ran. When her father was killed. She intends to run straight to Loot but she remembers her promise to Adena and goes to the palace instead - to retrieve the vest. She plays up her injury and is taken to her room by an Imperial, who even calls a healer for her foot. She’s patched up and now wearing the vest, she sneaks out of the palace and is running down the road toward the Bowl to get back to Loot when a man holding his head steps out in front of her. The king, all alone. He confesses that he’s known she was an Ordinary for some time, knew she was involved in the Resistance, knew what her father was doing before his death. But he needed her alive, until now. She screams at him about Adena, but he clarifies that she is the one that killed her friend. He warned her to stay away from his sons, not to do too well in the Trials. This is on her. Then he attacks her with his sword. Kai fights in the Bowl. He sees Kitt fighting like Kai has never seen before. Enraged, nearly feral. Then Kai sees that there are far fewer people fighting and that the Resistance is trying to escape. He plans to follow them. Pae fights the Brawny king. She accuses him of making up the weakness of the Ordinaries and he says that she can’t prove anything. He will not allow his land of Elites to be sullied. By the end, she’s broken his elbow and now they both have head injuries. He’s carving her up with his sword after knocking her to the ground, a slice on her jaw, a design over her heart, as he tells her it wasn’t him that killed her father. An easy fiction for Paedyn’s child brain to fill her hazy memories with. It was Kai that did it. It was Kai’s first kill as a matter of fact; he even vomited afterward. As the king is about to kill her, desperation makes her grab his ankle and pull. He’s already unsteady from the wound to his head. He falls and she’s able to grab his sword as he stands. She stabs him in the heart, twists, and pulls the sword back out. Then she throws a dagger at his throat. It’s only afterward that she notices the Sight watching her. She grabs her dagger from the king’s body and runs, only doing so for a moment before a dagger whizzes past her. Kai is following her, and he knows what she’s done. He knows she killed his father. He easily catches up to her. He knows he should kill her, but he can’t. He lets her go, telling her to run before he finds someone stronger than he is to do what he can’t. Kitt is king. He’s harder than he expected to be, filled with everything except for kindness and still desperate to make his father proud. He calls Kai in and gives him his first mission as Enforcer. Bring him Paedyn Gray.