Red Queen

Mare watches a lightning shield come to life above her, Cal, and the executioners, protecting the crowd from what they are about to do. Mare would ordinarily be able to control the shield, but her abilities are still being held at bay. Cal tells Mare to stay behind him as long as possible and then to try outrunning their adversaries. He tells Mare to let him worry about his own strategy.

Evangeline tells Mare that tricks can’t save her now. Although Evangeline has seen Mare’s abilities at work, Mare realizes that, “She ignores the truth for something easier to understand.” Cal should be able to make spectacular use of his power over fire, but he soon finds that Maven has bewitched the sand to be flame resistant. Mare watches as Cal uses his gift as creatively as possible to defend himself. Mare cannot help him and must use evasion tactics.

When one of her adversaries catches Mare from behind, she summons the strength within herself to physically fight back, digging her fingers into his eyes. Having fought free, Mare sees Evangeline poised over Cal, ready for the kill. Without thinking, Mare charges Evangeline and collides into her. Mare’s body scrapes along Evangeline’s armor and bleeds red for everyone to see, in person and over the broadcast.

Mare and Cal continue trying to fend off the Silvers. Cal does remarkably well until a nymph attacks him with water. Mare allows herself to be cornered by one of her executioners, attempting to use her fear to summon her lightning. Nothing happens. She sees Cal caught in an orb of boiling water. He is going to drown. Deciding to embrace the labels of “liar” and “trickster,” Mare ducks to the ground just as her opponent charges at her, leaving the man who his stifling her abilities exposed behind her. The plan works: the man is killed, and Mare can wield lightning again.

Maven screams for Mare to be killed, but the crowd has already seen her red blood and her lightning. She takes control of the shield to protect herself. Remembering how Julian described her and the other genetically mutated individuals as “Silver and Red, and stronger than both,” Mare begins to kill the executioners, one by one. The nymph almost bests her, but the promise of winning has made her so afraid to lose that she summons the strength to electrocute him through his water.

Only Mare, Cal, Evangeline, and Evangeline’s brother remain alive in the arena. Cal refuses to kill anyone. Mare realizes that the arena has emptied out. Only Maven remains above, ordering Sentinels onto the field. Mare is angry, feeling that she and Cal have won the battle but are being denied victory. She refuses to cry in her last moment, though. She apologizes to Cal, grabs his hand, and looks up at the gathering storm, thinking of all the people she loves. She resigns herself to death.

Suddenly, Cal throws himself and Mare back from a huge bolt of lightning. Mare realizes that the storm is of her own making. She feels it sapping her energy because it is too large. She needs another bolt of lightning to allow her and Cal to escape, but she cannot summon it. Maven watches happily as gunmen close around Cal and Mare, and gunshots begin ringing out. Mare, however, does not feel anything. In fact, the gunmen begin falling. Mare looks down and sees a line of guns shooting, seemingly of their own accord, at the gunmen. Someone grabs Mare and pulls her down into water in a chasm below.