Glass Sword

Content Warning: This section contains summaries of graphic depictions of death.

The body left alone to hang is a trap, and Maven stands in the shadows. Two Silvers grab Shade before the group can teleport away. Mare tries to stop them with her lightning, but a strange clicking noise echoes in her head, and her power makes pain shoot through her. Maven captures her, and the clicking grows faster, increasing the pain until she feels like she is “being obliterated inside [her] own skin” (236).

After some time, the pain fades, and Mare opens her eyes to find Kilorn and Cal in Maven’s place. She was unconscious for four days, and Maven left a brand on her skin. The pain was caused by a machine that overloaded Mare’s power and turned it against her. While she was out, the group fled Harbor Bay and regrouped, rescuing the other newblood in the process. As Cal and Kilorn explain what happened, they smile and joke with one another, a far cry from the barely suppressed hostility they’ve shown up until now.

Kilorn leaves, and Cal examines Mare’s brand—an M carved into her collarbone. With sudden clarity, Cal realizes Maven isn’t hunting newbloods to destroy them but to draw Mare out because he “wants you more than anything else on this earth” (249).