one of his gloved hands out to me.
He meets my stare with unwavering calm. “I’m not tell-
He snaps his fingers.
ing you my story so that you can get to know me,” he says. I
A small flame bursts to life on his fingertips, licking hun-
blush against my will. “I’m telling you to offer you a deal.”
grily at the air above it. Unlike whatever it was that I’d creat-
“You’re one of . . .”
ed during my burning, this fire feels real, its heat distorting
“And so are you,” Enzo says. “You can create illusions.
the space above it and warming my cheeks. Violent mem-
Needless to say, you caught my attention.” When he sees
ories of my execution day flash through my mind. I shrink
my skeptical look, he continues, “Word has it that the tem-
away from the fire in terror. The wall of flames he’d pulled from
ples in Dalia have been overflowing with terrified worship-
midair during my burning. That’d been real, too.
pers ever since the stunt with your father.”
Enzo twists his wrist, and the flame dies out, leaving only
I can create illusions. I can summon images that aren’t
a tiny wisp of smoke. My heart beats weakly. “When I was
really there and I can make people believe they are real.
twelve years old,” he says, “the blood fever finally hit Es-
A sick feeling crawls from my stomach to the surface of
tenzia. It swept in and out within a year. I was the only one
my skin. You are a monster, Adelina. I instinctively brush my
in my family affected. A year after the doctors pronounced
hand down my arm, as if attempting to rid myself of a dis-
me recovered, I still could not control my body’s warmth.
ease. My father had tried so hard to provoke something like
I’d turn desperately feverish one moment, freezing cold the
this in me. Now it’s here. And he is dead.
next. And then, one day, this.” He looks down at his hand, then back to me. “What’s your story?”
Enzo waits patiently for me to speak again. I don’t know how much time passes before I finally murmur, “I was four
I open my mouth, then close it. It makes sense. The fever
years old when I caught the blood fever. The doctors had
had struck the country in waves for a full decade, starting
to remove one of my eyes.” I hesitate. “I’ve only done . . .
with my home city of Dalia and ending here, in Estenzia.
this . . . twice before. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary
Out of all the Kenettran cities, Estenzia had been hit the
during my childhood.”
hardest—forty thousand dead, and another forty thousand
He nods. “Some manifest powers later than others, but
marked for life. Nearly a third of their population, when
our stories are the same. I know what it’s like to grow up
put together. The city’s still struggling to get back on its feet.
marked, Adelina. All of us understand what it is like to be
“That’s a very personal story to tell someone you just met,”
abominations.”
I manage to reply.
“All of us?” I ask. My mind wanders again to the black 54
55