But wait.
He called me Serafina when I was first awakening.
“How do you know my name?”
The muscle in his jaw tightens. He glances at his feet. “That group of…animals…the ones who attacked you,” he says, the words strained, like they’re painful to say. “They were all too eager to tell me who you are, Serafina Belva Octonova.” His eyes flicker up, meeting mine again, and they look angry. So angry my breath catches in my throat, but then his expression softens. “They said you were an evader. That you were fleeing your village to escape having to attend the third trial.”
My face feels hot because this is a very serious accusation. I mean, it’s completely true, but what will he do with this information? Will he turn me into the Enforcers? Drag me back to Village 28?
“But I know you weren’t evading,” he says slowly, the low rumble of his voice drawing my focus. “Because evading comes with a death sentence. You were at the bridge because you were meeting me. That’s the only reason you were there. And that’s what I told those men who were trying to kill you. Do you understand what I’msaying?”
My mouth falls open because I do not understand. “But…why?” I finally manage to say. “Why did you save me?”
He blinks at me. Once. Twice. A third time. There’s so much curiosity rooted deep within those golden-brown eyes of his.
“Why wouldn’t I save you?”
“Because you don’t know me.”
“I may not know you. But I know you’re like me.”
Like me. Like me.How am I like him? And then I remember.
“The white light,” I say softly. “That was you?” He nods his head. “You’re an Essentari.” He nods again. An Essentari with the ability to control light, which makes him a Luminarie.
But still, that doesn’t explain why Norin and the others would actually listen to him, why they would actuallycareabout what he had to say. Why would the fact that I was meeting him, a stranger, someone not from Village 28, change anything? But then, I allow myself to take in the attire of my rescuer.
He’s dressed in fine clothes. The finest clothes I’ve ever seen. A dark gray tunic tucked into smooth leather pants and sewn into the material right over his heart is a red crest. Three crossed torches to symbolize the trials.
I know that crest. Another thing we’re forced to memorize for the second trial. It’s the royal crest, and only those who live in the Imperial City are allowed to wear it.
“You’re an Elite,” I say, the disgust thick in my voice because it doesn’t matter that he saved me. It doesn’t matter that he’s an Essentari.
The Elite live lavishly while the rest of us struggle to survive. The Elite don’t have to worry about their children dying in the trials. It doesn’t matter that our planet is on the brink of extinction. With the blessing of the crown, they do as they please.
We suffer whiletheythrive.
I push myself off the ground, my head pounding as I do. Now on my feet, I stomp in the opposite direction.
“Where are you going?” he calls after me.
“Away from you!” I yell back, putting more and more space between us.
But then he’s in front of me, and I nearly collide into him.
I blink.
I turn my head.
He was just behind me.
I look up at him. He’s much taller than me, at least a foot. Something I didn’t realize until this very moment. But most men are taller than me. Mostpeopleare taller than me. When you’re only sixty inches and some change, it’s something you get used to.
“As fast as light moves, I move,” he explains. “It’s how I got us here to the edge of Velegoria.”
He studies me, eyes scanning my face before taking a step back.
I didn’t know Luminaries could do that. Move at the speed of light. But I suppose there’s a lot about the element wielders I don’t know. Which means there’s a lot about myself I don’t know.
