Red Queen (Red Queen, #1)

by Victoria Aveyard

I don’t understand at all. I don’t belong here. Julian was right. This is a game I don’t understand, a game I don’t know how to play. I wish Julian were here now, to explain, to help, to save me. But no one is coming. “Maven, please,” I plead, trying to make him look at me. But he turns his back, focusing on his mother and his betrayed blood. He is his mother’s son. She didn’t care that he was in my memories. She didn’t care that he was part of all this. She didn’t even look surprised. The answer is frighteningly simple. Because she already knew. Because he is her son. Because this was her plan all along. The thought stings like knives running along skin, but the pain only makes it more real. “You used me.” Finally, Maven condescends to look back at me. “Catching on, are you?” “You chose the targets. The colonel, Reynald, Belicos, even Ptolemus—they weren’t the Guard’s enemies, they were yours.” I want to tear him apart, lightning or not. I want to make him hurt.