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“If I was a character in a book, I’d want to be in a different story.”
    â€œYou will be,” Jenna said, leaning closer so she could speak into his ear. “You can be in my story.” And then, for reasons she couldn’t explain, she leaned toward him and shared the secret she’d kept forever. “See, I’m magemarked.”
    â€œMagemarked?” His eyebrows came together. “What’s that?”
    â€œShhh,” she said, clapping her hand over his mouth and glaring around the packed wagon. From what she could tell, everyone else was asleep. It was amazing how alone you could be in the middle of a crowd. “Nobody can know.” She took his hand and placed it over the raised emblem on the back of her neck, the spiderweb of metal, the smooth stone at the center.
    His eyes widened as he brushed his fingers over the surface. “What’s it mean?” he whispered.
    â€œIt means I’m powerful.”
    â€œWell,” Riley said, swallowing hard, “maybe you are. But I don’t have a mark.”
    Jenna was instantly sorry she’d brought the whole thing up. She’d kept it to herself for this long. Why had she chosen to blurt it out now?
    â€œThat doesn’t matter,” she said. “We are chosen, you and I. We’ll write our own story, you’ll see.” Putting her hands on Riley’s shoulders, she looked into his eyes. “When I look at a person, I can see who they really are.”
    â€œYou can’t,” Riley said.
    â€œI can.” That was a stretcher. She’d see pictures or hear fragments, was all, but it wasn’t easy figuring out what they meant. Sometimes it was the person as they were, only clearer, truer, like when somebody lets their guard down. And sometimes it was the person they were going to be.
    Other people she knew by their scent. For instance, Riley smelled of sweat and hard work and kindness and honesty.
    â€œWho’m I?” Riley asked, lifting his chin and striking a pose.
    Jenna stared at him. She saw him just as he was. Beyond that, nothing at all.
    â€œWhat? What is it?” Riley swiped at his face like he was afraid it was dirty.
    â€œWhy, Riley, I think you’re going to be a king,” Jenna said finally.
    â€œA king. What do you mean?”
    â€œI keep seeing you, and a crown, and a sword. That must mean you’re meant for great things, right?” She leaned in close and whispered, “In our story, the king of Arden gets eaten by wolves in Chapter One.”
    Riley laughed softly, but he still looked around to make sure nobody could overhear. “For now, I’d be glad to hear the story you brought. It’ll give me something to look forward to, while we’re down in the mine.” He sighed. “I wish it was the end of the day right now.”
    But it wasn’t the end of the day. They were just pulling up in front of the Number Two mine, which meant that the end of the day was twelve hours away. They called it the Number Two because a year ago there’d been an explosion at the Number One mine that buried the entrance under tons of rubble, shutting it down.
    The colliers said it was firedamp, the explosive gas that built up in the mine. The Ardenine bosses claimed it was sabotage, because it happened at change of shift, when there were few miners underground. The king of Arden was furious when he heard, because he needed coal and steel to put weapons into the hands of his army. So they cut a new shaft into the mountain. Most of the able-bodied men and women in Delphi had been forced into the mines already. So King Gerard issued orders to herd up every lýtling in Delphi and send them into the mines to make up for lost time. That was a year ago.
    The youngest lýtlings died the first month. They’d be carried from the mine at the end of each shift, piled in a wagon, and driven back down to town so their parents could claim them.