Reckless

Kai recognized Paedyn despite her disguise and challenges her to a fight because he’s afraid she may evade him otherwise. He introduces himself as Flame to Rafael and taunts Shadow into accepting his challenge. Because of the expectant crowd, Paedyn accepts. Rafael offers her a break before the next fight, however, so Paedyn slips out. Kai follows her. They meet atop a roof, where she threatens him with a knife. Confronted by Paedyn, Kai convinces himself that they can simply be strangers in a foreign city for a while and gives in to his desire. He and Paedyn kiss before she pushes him away. She bargains with him: If she wins the fight, he’ll let her go; if he wins, she’ll go back to Ilya willingly. Kai agrees, and they return to the ring to fight. Plagued by parallel memories of their past relationship, Kai and Paedyn fight and taunt each other, but neither can beat the other.

Paedyn eventually pins Kai down and puts a knife at his throat but can’t bring herself to kill him. The prince, who knows that Paedyn is hiding, then rips off her scarf and reveals her identity to the crowd.

When the crowd realizes who Paedyn is and therefore what she’s worth, they begin threatening her. Kai convinces her that her only way out is to let him help her. She reluctantly agrees, resolving to escape Kai’s guard later. He tells the crowd that Paedyn belongs to him, and the people of Dor are so afraid of the Elites’ power that they let him take her unharmed. Once outside, Kai confronts Paedyn for killing his father. However, she notes that he killed her father years ago. She uses his confusion upon learning that fact to fight him off and run away.

Kai runs after Paedyn through the streets, reflecting on the revelation of his role in Paedyn’s father’s death. He finally catches up with her after slicing her injured leg again and weakening her. After taking Paedyn prisoner, Kai leads her to an inn undercover where they get a room for the night. There, they discuss the king’s murder and Paedyn’s future. She explains that she never intended to kill the king but did it to protect herself and Ilya. Kai tends to her wounds and confesses that he didn’t know the identity of his first kill, Paedyn’s father, and was forced to do the king’s bidding. Paedyn then asks him to turn around so that she can change her clothes and uses the opportunity to steal the bed, leaving Kai to sleep on the floor.

Kai forces Paedyn to wake at dawn and leave for the edge of the Scorches, where his men are waiting to take her to Ilya. While walking through the city, he sees that her injured leg is bothering her and, despite her protests, tends to her wound again.

Kitt is still secluded in his office and refuses to come out. He hasn’t been sleeping or eating well, often throwing his food out the window. When his cousin Andy comes to visit him under the pretense of fixing his window, Kitt admits that he feels overwhelmed by his new role. Andy offers her help, but Kitt rebukes her.

The Imperials have tied up Paedyn, and the group is starting the journey back to Ilya through the desert. She refuses to get on a horse, and Kai teases her about her fear of horses. After she walks for a while, Kai uses one of the Imperials’ Healing powers to heal her leg, arguing that she can’t run away now that they’re so far from Dor. Paedyn, who is still plotting to escape, pretends to be tired so that the prince will help her onto a horse. As she climbs onto it, she steals a knife from him and hides it in her boot. Kai climbs on the horse behind her to keep an eye on her.

The group stops for the night, and Kai insists that Paedyn sleep next to him. They taunt each other, and the conversation turns to Ilya’s history. Paedyn doubts that the Ordinaries are truly diseased, claiming that the king has been using this as a pretext to create an Elite society by killing powerless people. She argues that Elites are unnatural and that the king’s greed has made Ilya, isolated and resourceless, weaker than ever. Her point of view surprises Kai, but he believes in the disease and doubts that Kitt would be willing to change things. The next morning, Kai wakes as an arrow lands near his head, and Paedyn threatens him with a knife.

Paedyn recognizes the arrow as Finn’s and realizes that her friends are rescuing her. She greets Lenny, Leena, and Finn warmly as they reunite for the first time since the events of the Third Trial in Powerless. They tie up Kai and help Paedyn climb onto a horse with Lenny. While they ride, the surviving resistant fighters explain that the Resistance has been eradicated in Ilya. The movement’s leader, Calum, and his daughter, Mira, were taken prisoner by the king. The price on Paedyn’s head is high, so Lenny plans to trade her freedom for Kai’s life, since he counts on the king wanting his brother and Enforcer back.

Lenny guides the group to a hidden community in Dor that his mother, Meredith, heads. They’re refugees from Ilya who are mostly Mixes, or descendants of Elites and Ordinaries, so they have weak powers that don’t afford them Elite status. Luna, Lenny’s younger sister, for example, can conjure flames only from her fingers. Learning about the Mixes surprises Paedyn and intrigues Kai. The newcomers settle in for the night, with Paedyn lying next to Kai to keep an eye on him.

Two days later, Kai is still being held prisoner and is trying to figure out how to use the Mixes’ weakened abilities. He overhears Lenny’s plan for the exchange with Kitt and doubts that his brother will simply agree to the terms. That night, however, an unknown group ambushes them, and Kai is knocked unconscious. He wakes up tied to Paedyn, who is unhappy to be trapped with him in a small cell. Their captor is Rafael, who wants to collect the prize on Paedyn’s head and a ransom for Kai. Once he leaves, Kai and Paedyn make a deal to work together to escape.

Kitt still hasn’t left his office, and rumors hold that he is having a mental health crisis. He hears someone knock on his door. Calum, the former leader of the Resistance, enters and offers counsel to Kitt, who gratefully accepts it, as he has done for a while now. Calum encourages Kitt to agree to his latest suggestion and pushes a small box in front of the new king. Kitt is hesitant but eventually relents when Calum argues that his father always told him to be “brave, benevolent, and brutal” (178).