Now I know they were probably just brought here. And I suppose the truth wasn't so different from what we believed. How many of those taken would have actually survived? Nearly two thousand students between offerings, aspirants, and legacies arrived on the first day. By the time students reach fifth year, the class size apparently has shrunk to less than a hundred. The losses are mind-numbing.

"I imagine this storm came with a great deal of emotion. Yes?" Voss's eyes hold mine, keen with interest.

I nod my head. "We were all arguing. There was a festival that day. A stupid, silly thing, but it was a chance to dress up, dance, and just be normal for a change. To forget for a moment that I was going to grow old on fishing boats pulling nets. That morning, my father said we would be back in time for me to go. But the fishing was too good that day to pass up. He said we needed to stay as long as the nets were coming up full. And… I got mad."

Voss presses his lips together in sympathy. "And then the storm came?"

"And then it came… I was the only one who lived. It's why I volunteered to come here. My sister and mother apparently suspected I had powers all along. They blamed me for keeping it a secret. Called me selfish. Said if I just admitted I was a freak, Empire would've taken me away before I could've got them killed. Nothing I ever did fixed it, either. So that third year, I volunteered." My words catch in my throat.

"Brave,” Voss says softly.

"No… I did it because I was a coward. I couldn't bear the idea of facing them one more day. I always saw the same thing in their faces. They thought I was a monster. Then I came here and found out I really am. Unbound. If people knew, they'd look at me just like my mother and sister did. Like a monster." The words pour out of me. They’ve been building ever since I finished the unbound book for the first time.

"Only because they don't grasp what you can become."

"Isn't that the problem? Unbound can do so much harm. It's too much power for any one person. So they're right to see me as a monster."

"No, Nessa. This world of ours is… flawed." Voss's voice softens, taking on a quality I've never heard in it before. "Great individuals with the power to make change are exactly what we need. People like you. Unbound."