“I prefer realist,” Blai muttered.
“Her magie was brilliant,andthe crowd loved her. If the Counseil don’t make her a finalist, the audience will riot.”
A word that sank like a stone in Nik’s stomach.
The music and lights shifted.
Chantal was naïve. Lafontaine was more ruthless than she or Blai could imagine. Regardless of what the people wanted, Lafontaine would do what was best. For the city… and himself.
As he watched Elara stare ahead, a feeling grew in his chest: want. It was so different from the need he’d felt. The need for food, water, and shelter. Basic necessities to stay alive. Things were different now thatElara had made him realize he could have… could dream for so much more.
He wanted to believe Chantal.
He wanted to believe that one wrong choice wasn’t enough to condemn a person.
Hope, his aching face reminded him, was a dangerous thing. He’d survived his whole life by focusing on the necessary things, including supporting his father’s every whim.
Because hope required abandoning reason to invest in a future that wasn’t promised.
Elara somehow balanced both.
The wanting in Nik’s chest expanded as he watched her face the future, unafraid.
“In last place,” Tremblay called. “Manon Gavreau.”
The light on the chef went out, plunging her into darkness.
“Fourth place, Fiona Brady.”
The red-haired girl screamed as her light burned out too.
Elara had done it.
All on her own, just as she’d begged to do from the beginning.
Chantal bumped his hip. “Told you so.”
Even Nik couldn’t stop the giddy bubble of laughter that erupted out of him.
“Third place, and our first finalist, Hector Vidal.”
His joy quickly fled.
Hector’s light dimmed, leaving only two burning spires: Berina and Elara.
“And your winner tonight is…”
Nik studied the Counseil quickly, discerning how their vote had swayed.
His father was standing off to the side, his hatred and fury narrowed onto the one person standing in his way.
“Elara Rousseau.”
Nik’s hopes sank, giving room for fear to rise.
In trying to avoid a Restes riot, they’d unknowingly elected its leader.
24ELARA
