An Ember in the Ashes

Laia is Elias’s prize. Laia fears he’ll hurt her, but Elias unties her and builds up a fire for warmth. They sit in companionable if tense silence for a while until Elias asks about Laia’s family. She explains the raid and Darin’s impending execution, to which Elias tells her the prison the resistance says her brother’s in “doesn’t have death cells” (365). Elias also refutes the other information Laia’s gotten from the resistance, making her wonder if the rebels are lying or just misinformed.

Elias tells Laia about his childhood—how his mother left him to die in the desert, and he was raised by one of the tribal groups. As he talks, Laia forgets he’s a Mask, instead seeing only the boy he was and the man he’s become. Both feel guilty for letting those they care about die and frustrated about being stuck in their roles of Mask and slave. To break them free of the restraints of their lives, Laia pulls off Elias’s mask, and their lips tangle in a kiss that seems to say, “let me forget, forget, forget” (371). They break apart, feeling awkward, and they spend the rest of the night telling stories of their pasts.