The novel starts with an explanation of a blood fever that went through the country of Kennetra. The blood fever killed the adults who got it and left the children scarred. Not all children were only left scarred however some were left with abilities not natural to the human body. They are known as the Young Elites. After this explanation Adelina, a sixteen year old girl is introduced. She is 16 and in prison awaiting execution for the murder of her father. She then flashes back to the night of her father’s death. We learn that she had a dysfunctional relationship with both her father and her sister. Although her relationship with her sister was still better. She decides that she needs to leave and runs away. She made this decision because she overheard her father selling her to a man to be a mistress. She is a Malfetto, someone scarred after the blood fever, the men think her to be pretty but would never be her wife. The man offered a lot of money for her to be his mistress.Once her father finds her missing he follows her and catches her. He tries to drag her back home. They fight while fighting Adelina produces black demon-like figures which scare her father. He backs into his horse, the horse also scared, kills her father. While awaiting her death the POV changes to a boy named Enzo he gets a letter from “the Messenger” we know nothing of this except that because of the letter Enzo decides to “move out”. The story goes back to Adelina when the Inquisition Axis or police are taking her above ground where she will be executed in front of a large crowd of people. The lead inquisitor Teren will be the one to set her on fire. While this is happening Adelina produces Locusts in the sky distracting everyone enough that a masked man is able to save her. The masked man turns out to be Enzo. Enzo and his supporters brought Adelina to Estenzia, the port city of Kennetra. There Enzo shows her his ability of fire and tells her that he is a leader of a secret society of Young Elites called the Dagger Society. He asks her to join to which she agrees to punish all who have wronged her. They have her rest then she meets Raffaele. Raffaele is the “Messenger”. He is the other leader and Enzo’s friend. His first action with Adeliana is to see where her energies align. They align with fear, fury, passion, and ambition. These alignments were concerning Raffaele who suggested to Enzo they should kill her before she becomes a danger to all of them. Enzo does not comply. Next Raffaele takes her to meet and be tested by the other Elites some of which are nice and others which do not like her at all. Adelina does not have control of her powers and can only use them when she feels in danger despite this Enzo still feels they should invest in her. It then switches to Teren’s perspective. He is also a Young Elite he can heal himself automatically but feels it to be unnatural and he pledges to the Queen with whom he is having an affair that he will kill all malfettos. For this reason he really wants to find Adelina. He is tipped off where to find her. He is told that she is at the Fortuna Court, a Pleasure Court. He disguises himself as a patron and sneaks in while there is a performance. He tells Adelina that he will kill her sister if she does not give him inside information. Adelina not wanting her sister to be harmed agrees despite not wanting to. Adelina’s powers are progressing too slowly for her liking but she is able to conjure while training with another Elite the same figures she used on her father. Raffaele diffuses the situation then Enzo calls all but Adelina together for a mission. She takes the opportunity to go to Teren for the first time with information. She doesn’t reveal information to him but he lets her leave anyway saying next time she must bring information. Instead of going back to the court she sees a Horse race and one of the other Elites is a competitor. She wins but just as she is about to get the prize they announce Malfettos can no longer compete. This creates chaos but Adelina is able to conjure illusions giving them all time to get away. She tries to get back before the other Elites but fails; they are mad that she didn’t stay at the court but they all think that she is being trained to slow. Enzo decides to train her personally. During sessions the two almost kiss but Adeliana can’t tell if that truly happened or if she just wanted it to. Adeliana progresses and Enzo, proud of this, allows her to be on the next mission. As part one of the mission, Adelina and Enzo go undercover together as a couple attending the festival. They kill the Inquisition officers guarding the ships that carry the fireworks for the festival. Once the mission is complete, Adelina attempts to flee the scene but is cornered by Teren. He tells her she has 3 days to bring him useful information or he will kill Violetta. After her successes during the Spring Moons mission, Adelina is officially inducted into the Dagger Society. After her initiation she goes to a party with the other Daggers. Thinking about everything including her pact with Teren makes Adelina feel sick, so Enzo escorts her from the party. The two talk about Teren and his abilities before Adelina kisses him. Enzo returns her kiss until eventually Adelina pushes him away. Adelina thinks now is her chance to tell everything to him. When she goes to Enzo to confess however, she overhears him talking to Dante. They talk about her, and about how none of the Daggers except for Enzo trust her. Devastated, Adelina makes her way towards the Inquisition Axis Tower to betray the Daggers to Teren who is at the palace assassinating the king. When Teren arrives Adelina demands to see Violetta before she tells him anything. Once they are together Adelina tries to break them out of Teren’s prison. It is revealed that her sister is also a Young Elite. She has the ability to take away the powers of other Elites. The sisters get away. Dante, having followed Adelina from Fortunata, knows she is tied to Teren in some way and thinks she has betrayed the Daggers. The two of them argue. Adelina is still angry about his words to Enzo earlier in the night so Adelina strikes out with her anger, hatred, and fear. She uses the pain illusion to kill him. She and Violetta stay with his body for a few hours then go back to the court when they get there nobody else is there. The sisters take shelter in the catacombs and talk Violetta’s secret. When they go above ground they watch Teren drag out a captured Raffaele and make an offer to the Reaper: if they come and reveal themselves he will let Raffaele go. In response to this a masked Enzo walks out of the crowd and challenges Teren to a duel in exchange for Raffaele’s freedom. Teren agrees and they set the fight for the day of the king’s funeral. Violetta uses her abilities to track down the Daggers at their new headquarters. The Daggers are suspicious of Adelina but they need her help so they let her stay. She shares information about Violetta’s ability and they make a plan for Enzo’s fight with Teren. The day of the duel the Daggers are stationed all over the main piazza. Adelina and Violetta are disguised with illusions. Teren enters the piazza with Raffaele and calls for the Reaper to reveal himself. Enzo complies, revealing his identity to Teren. Enzo is the prince everyone thought to be dead. The two boys begin to fight. Teren has an advantage because of his ability so Enzo gives the Daggers a signal. Two of them strike down the Inquisition officers guarding Raffaele while another rescues him. Violetta strips Teren of his healing powers and Adelina turns Enzo into a replica of Teren. Slowly Enzo begins to win, until Teren reveals he has thousands of Inquisition officers flooding into the piazza and they begin to kill Enzo’s supporters. Violetta cannot keep Teren’s abilities at bay for long because she is exhausted, she faints and is rescued by an Elite. Adelina stays and tries to help Enzo with her illusions. Teren notices how close she is and attacks her. He makes her fall to the ground and hit her head. Disoriented, Adelina uses her illusion of pain on Enzo thinking he is Teren. This causes Enzo to fall to his knees. Teren takes advantage and delivers a killing blow. Adelina quickly realizes her mistake but she is too late to stop it. Enzo dies. The remaining Daggers come and rescue Adelina. Led by Raffaele, they interrogate her and ask her for the truth. Adelina confesses everything, including her murder of Dante and her coercive relationship with Teren. After she is done speaking Raffaele reveals that he feared this happening all along, which is why he told Enzo to kill her. He casts Adelina out of the society and leaves her. Just before he goes, he tells her that he loved Enzo too. Adelina starts to cut her hair off because she is upset and feels betrayed. Violetta soothes her. She tells Adelina she has always had her back. This comforts Adelina, who resolves to form her own society and get revenge on Teren. Meanwhile news of what has happened in Estenzia reaches the court of Princess Maeve Corrigan in Beldain. Maeve fears that the death of Enzo will slow down her plans for Kenettra, but decides it doesn't matter. She mobilizes her own society of Elites and her brother Tristan, whom is now similar to a weapon. After Maeve brought him back to life, Tristan only listens to her. With her forces Maeve sets her sights on Kenettra.
Themes
Investment - This theme reappears many times throughout the novel. Adelina’s father makes his children an investment. He loves Violetta because she is beautiful and many men would like to marry her. He thinks if she marries up this could potentially help his merchant business if not he could live off of the dowry. He does not invest in Adelina because she is a malfetto and she is the reason his business is going under. The only time he did try to “invest” in her by being kind and loving her was when he thought there was a possibility she could be a “Young Elite”. When she didn’t show him any power he stopped showing her affection. Another time this is present is when the Dagger Society takes her in. Raffaele tells her that feeding her, training her, and spending money on her is a risk and an investment. They feel that they are risking both their reputation and the fact that she may turn on them. (Dramatic Irony) Raffaele unbeknownst to Adelina feels she is a bad investment but Enzo feels she is worth the risk and will be good in the end. Fear is Power - This is a central theme as it is in many of the characters the most notable being Adelina the main character and protagonist/antagonist. She has to be an environment that she is fearful of or feels uncomfortable in. Her powers are most effective however when she is feeding off the fear of everyone else. She has openly admitted that she feels powerful in the face of others' helplessness. Adelina struggles with her personality because of this. Multiple characters point this quality out to Adelina. Another example of this is the way the government makes its people fear malfettos. They have told them that they are dangerous and only bring bad fortune. In return they have used this fear as fuel to kill the malfettos. The true reason the government doesn’t want them to win is because they fear that with all the power the Elites do have they could take over and rule the country in whatever way they please.
Reality VS. Illusion - What is real and what is not is confused many times throughout the novel. Adelina's powers are literally to blur this distinction. Her power is described as “the ability to trick one’s perception of reality. Before she knew of her abilities she thought the figures that she made appear to her father were real entities that wanted to kill him. Not something that she had made herself. Throughout the novel Adelina loses her own sense of reality. The most important of these times was during the final battle when she thinks she is helping Enzo but in reality is hurting him which helps lead to his death. Some of the illusions she makes even confuse herself and she cannot tell what or who is real or not. Personally, I feel that this is a perfect ability for her personality as she needs the fear which confusion and chaos creates.
Loss of Innocence - There are many flashbacks in the novel which show Adelina and Violetta as children. In these flashbacks she sees a lot of dark things. All of her memories are in some way tainted with darkness. She even describes the flashbacks as a time when she and her sister were still innocent; this shows us that at some point due to these occurrences they have lost that innocence. In the beginning of the novel it seems that she may still have a little bit of that childhood innocence. After the death of her father all of her innocence is gone as she no longer has the childlike hope for something better. She now realizes/thinks that everyone is out to use her in some way. The entire novel follows her transition into her adult life. The audience also knows her innocence is gone because she seeks revenge on those that have wronged her.
Favorite Quote
“Be true to yourself. But that's something everyone says and no one means. No one wants you to be yourself. They want you to be the version of yourself that they like.”
This is my favorite quote from the novel because it is a reality of the way the world works. Many people are propelled into success by their willingness to conform to societal standards. While others are blacklisted for their unwillingness to do so.
Argument Overview
Everyone has a darkness within them, with some prompting it can be released.