Red Queen

Back in the capital, Mare can see why the Silvers want to keep their lifestyle. It is beautiful. However, she also feels ready for revolution. Because of the terrorist attacks, the usual revelry of the king’s return to Archeon is muted. Maven recounts to Mare some of the glitzy celebration that usually takes place this time of year. As they exit the transport, Mare tells Maven, “I feel nothing for Cal” and tries to convince herself that she is not lying.

As soon as Mare and Maven are inside, they hear a shrill scream. They run along the hall until they come to a crowd of Silvers, all watching as Cal, Evengeline, Evangeline’s brother, and the king torture Walsh. Mare realizes that Walsh must have been one of the lookouts for her and Maven to get back to the palace. Elara is about to force Walsh to spill her secrets. To protect everyone who would be implicated, Walsh bites down on a pill that kills her.

Mare talks to Cal later, and he tells her that the suicide pill was like the ones given to the soldiers on the warfront. Cal argues that this was a better fate for Walsh than what would have happened to her: public execution. Although the practice of broadcasting executions has stopped, an exception might be made in the interest of stopping the Scarlet Guard.

Mare suggests to Cal that something might have happened between the two of them if politics had not come between them. She tries to put on an air of longing, “Giving him hope where none should be.” He tries to kiss her, but she denies him. As she leaves, he says that he wishes things were different. The words remind Mare of her father. Cal then says that Julian finds similarities between Mare and Coriane. “As much as I hate to admit it,” Mare reflects, “I can’t blame Cal for feeling caught between two worlds. After all, so am I.”

That night in bed, Mare stares at Julian’s map, eager for the coup that will happen in the morning. The map, which is old and shows a different world, is “proof the world can change.” Mare falls asleep and dreams of Shade, who tells her that she must find the others who are both Red and Silver. She promises that she will.

At four in the morning, Mare walks down the hall to Maven’s room, shutting down the cameras as she goes. Together, they go to the place by the tunnel where they have agreed to meet Farley. Mare’s legs shake with nerves. Farley gives her an earring from Kilorn. Mare pierces her ear with the earring, letting it draw blood. The earring reminds her of Kilorn before he was a warrior, and the blood reminds Mare who she is.

Mare and the others watch from their place at the tunnel entrance as the last section of the Bridge, which connects the royal part of Archeon to the rest of the city, explodes. Mare feels heat surge not from the explosion but from Maven. Mare watches the soldiers she hopes to win over as they swarm out to the square. Maven points out Cal, dressed in nightclothes but looking every bit the general.

Knowing that she is the one who must persuade Cal to the side of the Scarlet Guard, Mare calls out to him. She tries to think of him not as the general or the prince, but as the boy. She tells him that if he comes around to the Guard’s side, the single explosion could be the entire cost of revolution. “You hold the power right now,” she tells him. She implores him to use his control of the soldiers to make his father do what Cal knows is right.

Mare feels that Cal will choose her. She confesses to him that it was her blood in the prison cell the night the prisoners escaped and tells him that if he does not save her, she will be killed. Cal then realizes that Mare has been involved with the Scarlet Guard all along. She tries to explain, but he keeps demanding how many people she has killed and betrayed.

As Mare and Cal stare at each other, Mare feeling the fire rise behind Cal’s eyes, Maven yells for the Guard to storm out of the drains. Mare is aware that Kilorn is probably being killed by an onslaught of bullets, but she continues to stare at Cal. She asks him how many people he has had killed by enforcing so-called order. Realizing that Cal is not going to choose her, she begins listing her own loved ones who the Silvers have killed.

Cal whispers, again, that he wishes things were different. He then lets the Training instructor with the power to mute Silvers’ abilities take hold of Mare. Maven pleads with Cal not to let the Sentinels kill him or Mare. Mare shuts her eyes against the sight of Cal, realizing that she was a fool to hope he would choose his commitment to her.