Red Queen (Red Queen, #1)

by Victoria Aveyard

But suddenly, I’m very aware of the buzz in this room. Or lack thereof. This entire day I’ve felt the electrical weight of cameras, so much that I’ve stopped noticing. Until now, when I don’t feel it at all. It’s gone. I can feel the lights still pulsing with electricity, but no cameras. No eyes. Elara cannot see me here. “Why isn’t anyone watching us?” He only blinks at me. “So there is a difference,” he mutters. What that means I don’t know, and it infuriates me. “Why?” “Mare, I’m here to teach you your histories, to teach you how to be Silver and how to be, ah, useful,” he says, his expression souring. I stare at him, confused. Cold fear bleeds through me. “My name is Mareena.” But he only waves a hand, brushing aside my feeble declaration. “I’m also going to try to understand exactly how you came to be and how your abilities work.” “My abilities came to be because—because I’m a Silver. My parents’ abilities mixed—my father was an oblivion and my mother a storm.” I stutter through the explanation Elara fed me, trying to make him understand. “I’m a Silver, sir.” To my horror, he shakes his head. “No you are not, Mare Barrow, and you must never forget it.” He knows. I’m finished. It’s all over. I should beg, plead for him to keep my secret, but the words stick in my throat. The end is coming, and I can’t even open my mouth to stop it.