Page 2 of Powerful

The girl raises her eyebrows at the sticky bun still gripped in my hand. ‘First time stealing?’

‘That obvious?’ I smile sheepishly.

She shrugs. ‘You would think a Phaser would be better at escaping.’

‘See,’ I say with a sigh, ‘that’s what I thought. And look at where it got me.’ There is a stretch of silence before I blurt, ‘Oh, and I’m not really sure what you did back there, but thanks for your help.’

She flashes a smile. ‘Nothing difficult. Just stuck my foot out. It’s the Imperial’s fault for running into it, really.’

We laugh. It’s nice, this brief moment of companionship. The warmth coats my chest when I giggle for the first time in a long while. For the first time since Mama.

I raise the sticky bun between us. ‘Wanna split?’ She laughs again when I wave the dough beneath her nose.

‘What, with your sweat all over it?’

‘Oh, this is nothing,’ I say, the words muffled by the bite I take. ‘I’ve sweat more while trying to stitch up a corset.’

She looks absolutely distraught at that statement. ‘Why would you ever need a corset?’

‘Unfortunately,’ I sigh wistfully, ‘I wouldn’t. But richer people do.’

She blinks at me, something brewing behind her blue eyes. ‘You sell clothes?’

My eyes skim down the dirtied shirt hanging from her shoulder to land on the pants bunched at her boots. ‘Yeah, and it looks like you could certainly use some.’ I run a hand down her sleeve, feeling the coarse fabric rubbing against her skin. ‘No, this won’t do at all.’

‘Stealing food is kind of my priority at the moment,’ she grumbles.

Excitement bubbles up my throat in the form of ahushed shout. ‘You steal? Like, steal good?’

‘Steal good?’ she echoes skeptically.

‘Well, whatever I just did was bad.’ She is quick to nod in agreement. ‘So, can you do what I did, but, like, good?’

‘Anything is better than that,’ she says with an amused smile. ‘But yes, I stealgood.’

‘Perfect,’ I say cheerily before sticking out the hand currently unoccupied with my stolen goods. ‘I’m Adena.’

She takes my hand, seemingly shaking it just to humor me. ‘I’m Paedyn.’

‘Well, Paedyn–’ I rip the sticky bun in half, offering a smushed side to her – ‘I think we could make a great team.’

She pops a piece of dough into her mouth. ‘So, you sew, and I steal? We share the money and the food?’

‘Exactly.’ I hesitate for a moment. ‘I mean, unless you have somewhere better to go than the slums…’

‘Not anymore,’ she says a bit too quickly. ‘So, partners?’

‘Partners.’ I smile before looking down the length of her. ‘And my first order of business is getting you into something far less horrendous.’

She huffs out a laugh. ‘Yeah, because that’s a priority.’

I take another bite of sticky bun, humming at the sweet honey melting on my tongue. ‘And your first order of business,’ I mumble between bites, ‘is getting me more of these.’

CHAPTER 1Makoto

Her name is on a list of the dead.

I squint into the stinging sunlight, scrutinizing every name inked onto the banner. Hers sits among the eight others, likely overlooked beneath the prince’s crowning the top. But despite being on the list, our future Enforcer will easily evade the death awaiting the other contestants. Because these Trials were made for Elites like him. Not Elites like her.

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