Shadow and Bone

“I don’t remember,” Mal said. I recognized the stubborn set
of his jaw and knew he was lying. He did remember.
“I smelled the volcra, saw it swooping down on us. Alina
screamed and then I couldn’t see anything. The world was just
… shining.”
“So you didn’t see where the light was coming from?”
Raevsky asked.
“Alina isn’t … She couldn’t …” Mal shook his head.
“We’re from the same … village.” I noticed that tiny pause,
the orphan’s pause. “If she could do anything like that, I would
know.”
The Darkling looked at Mal for a long moment and then
glanced back at me.
“We all have our secrets,” he said.
Mal opened his mouth as if to say more, but the Darkling
put up a hand to silence him. Anger flashed across Mal’s
features but he shut his mouth, his lips pressed into a grim
line.
The Darkling rose from his chair. He gestured and the
soldiers stepped back, leaving me alone to face him. The tent
seemed eerily silent. Slowly, he descended the steps.
I had to fight the urge to back away from him as he came to
a halt in front of me.
“Now, what do you say, Alina Starkov?” he asked
pleasantly.
I swallowed. My throat was dry and my heart was careening
from beat to beat, but I knew I had to speak. I had to make him
understand that I’d had no part in any of this. “There’s been
some kind of mistake,” I said hoarsely. “I didn’t do anything. I
don’t know how we survived.”
The Darkling appeared to consider this. Then he crossed his
arms, cocked his head to one side. “Well,” he said, his voice
bemused. “I like to think that I know everything that happens
in Ravka, and that if I had a Sun Summoner living in my own
country, I’d be aware of it.” Soft murmurs of assent rose from
the crowd, but he ignored them, watching me closely. “But