Then I turn on Cassiopia. “I trust the rules of the competition. Murder’s illegal in the Races. If someone tries to kill me, they risk throwing away the rest of their lives. Everyone who signs up for the Races knows this is a dangerous event. People die. Correct me if I’m wrong, but thirty-seven contestants have died since the Races began, and I’m pretty sure only three of them were from the Reach.”

Cassiopia smiles. “So you’re not afraid of the other riders?”

“It’s hard to feel fear when you’re bigger, stronger, and faster than everyone else.”

“Bold words,” Cassiopia cuts back. “Maybe you can help us understand this misplaced confidence. Can you give us a good reason to think you’re anything more than a glorified sideshow in this year’s event?”

I smile, thinking about that, and the answer that comes almost makes me laugh. Daddy told me to rise. So I rise. Standing up, I offer a little wink to the audience and start unbuttoning the front of my shirt. I’m halfway down before Cassiopia tries to wave me off.

“Adrian, I’m not sure this is entirely appropriate.”

But the audience stirs excitedly. The stagehands all look unsure about whether or not they should intervene. Seconds later, my shirt is open and I’m grinning at the camera.

“This isn’t a sideshow. This is years of hard work. This is how we’re built in the Reach. I can ride, I can fight, and if you do both of those things, you can damn well win the Races.”

I sit down and start buttoning the shirt back up. Across from me, Cassiopia is fanning herself, letting her eyes roam, and half smiling at my boldness. She’s trying to treat my answer like it’s cute. Maybe something a child would say, but it’s hard to make me look small now.

“Bold move,” she says after a moment. “But all they’ll see is a bigger target.”

“Yeah? Well, they better not miss.”

I realize how far I’m straying from Antonio’s plan. He wanted soft answers. A bare-bones pride. Too late for that. Cassiopia’s smugness and the audience’s distaste have every single one of my veins pulsing. These people have no clue what they’re waking up. They’ve grown complacent, full of themselves. They’ve forgotten the people of the Reach were always destined to rise. They’ve forgotten that we almost did once.

Cassiopia wisely directs the interview to talk about my phoenix and my alchemical abilities. Both of them are safer topics by far. Conversations that will keep her head on her shoulders. She eventually veers into one topic that actually troubles me.

“What about the Madness?” she asks. “It’s been some time since the god of passage intervened in the Races, but it happens. What will you do if that occurs this year?”