Adelina and Violetta help but eventually Teren wounds Adelina with a knife. How Do You Build One? Similarly, it becomes obvious early on in the book that Adelina will be dealing with trials and tribulations while being marked as one of the Young Elites.

In addition, he worries about the mood swings he has noticed in Adelina lately, which makes him think that she may be unstable. The more passionate their kiss becomes, the darker Adelina’s power grows around them until it almost consumes Enzo’s own energy as well. She doesn’t yet have control over her powers and is only able to conjure up illusions when she feels her life to be in danger. The sisters cling to one another and imagine a perfect life together in which their parents are alive and they live happily ever after. Unlike the Skylands, which have a few malfettos, Estenzia was devastated by blood fever and uses malfettos as scapegoats for their problems.

Then she recalls how they were once very close until an accident in the woods led to Tristan’s death. - Publishers Weekly As he draws closer to Adelina, her fear, hatred, anger and desire reach their peak.

Lu is the author of many young adult fantasy and dystopian novels. Just when it seems Teren and his forces will kill them Violetta reveals she too is a Young Elite. A boy named Enzo tells Adelina that they are in Estenzia, which is the capital of Kenettra and one of the farthest cities from Dalia. However, when Adelina looks into the mirror, instead of seeing herself looking back at her (as is usually the case), an illusion appears before her: Her father tells her not to let anyone know who really killed Enzo—it would be best if no one knew what happened between them on that day in particular—and then suddenly changes into Enzo himself saying “I’m sorry.” He apologizes for taking away everything from Adelina; first killing off most of his family line (her mother included) then making Adelina feel like an outcast among both humans and Elites alike since he was convinced Violetta wasn’t actually related by blood but rather adopted by Valentino as part of some sort conspiracy against him…, Adelina is distraught and cuts her fingers. This is her power. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Or maybe I still have my hopes up that Adelina will redeem herself and find that spark of goodness and Marie Lu will only let me down in the coming books.

This makes it difficult to decide if she is an anti-hero or a hero. She is able to conjure up the same black figures she made the night her father died, which stops Spider in his tracks. Gasping in pain, Enzo collapses on the floor next to Adelina who sobs over him as he dies in front of her eyes—she wonders if what happened was real or just another illusion created by her powers going haywire due to hitting her head when she fell down earlier that night (or perhaps it was a combination of both). They discuss the malfettos’ right to live, as well as how they are different from one another. It wasn’t a crazy page turner for me but I was pulled along to see how things would turn out. Eventually, after much arguing back and forth between the two sisters about their abilities as witches (Adeline wanting hers back while Violette doesn’t want hers at all), Violette gives up on fighting with her sister just long enough for Adeline to regain some of her power which brings relief into both girls’ hearts but also brings a bit more understanding between each other as well as an even stronger connection than before…. Adelina’s silver-grey hair is a beacon that attracts attention while Enzo’s red hair is off-putting and sinister. Raffaele has come to take Adelina to her initiation ceremony. Adelina fears that he knows about her alliance with Teren.

She starts thinking that maybe among the Daggers there might be some kindness, something that she’s never had before in life.

She hurries up there just in time to create several illusions of herself so that they can distract Terens from attacking Enzo any further while he tries slicing off one of his heads only for it to begin healing immediately after being cut off by him again.

The plot lines introduced earlier do not resolve, but instead raise tension and make the reader subconsciously brace for a big fallout. Frustrated, she lashes out at Raffaele for not helping her more effectively use those powers when they sparred earlier today; he calms her down by telling him that it’s hard for anyone to control their powers when they’re so new to them and theorizes that maybe danger triggers them more easily than anything else does (which will turn out later on be true).

Adelina’s internal struggle between good and evil is reaching a boiling point. Young Elites are teenagers who’ve developed special powers after surviving the plague. Alone, the two talk about Teren and his healing abilities before Adelina kisses him. At first, Raffaele thinks it might be because he still loves Daphne (a woman who died in the past).

Her devastation and emptiness causes her to run away and seek out Teren. As they test out amber and nightstone stones on a necklace that is to be worn at the ball that evening, Adelina hears whispers from her father about how no one will ever love or want her because she is so ugly. However, her powers are still too raw for her to control them properly—she accidentally hurts Enzo while trying to help him escape from an attack. But when Dante gets angry at her, Adelina loses control of herself and kills him with an illusion of pain. Besides Raffaele, we also meet Queen Giulietta and the other Daggers. She then married a duke, who became king, and started denouncing malfettos so Enzo could not regain the throne.

Teren and Enzo are opposites. But eventually, Teren finally finds her.