Free Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini Page B

Rowan started shaking his head before Lily had even finished that short sentence. He didn’t believe a word of it.
    “What are you doing?” Rowan asked. “How can you sit there and expect me to believe this?”
    “I don’t know,” Lily replied quietly. The way he was looking at her was so raw it shook something inside her. “Juliet was with the two of us, me and Lillian. We were all standing together in the same room, and she didn’t believe it right away, either. How am I supposed to make you believe it?” She frantically tried to recall the conversation that had convinced Juliet. “There was something about a shaman.”
    “Hold on,” Caleb said. “What about the shaman?”
    “Juliet said something about Lillian studying with a shaman in secret. She said it like it was something really important. And that’s what made her finally believe that I was from another world, like Lillian was saying.”
    “Is this true?” Caleb looked at Rowan, like he couldn’t believe it. “Did a shaman go to the Citadel?”
    “He was there to help Samantha,” Rowan said impatiently. Tristan looked at Rowan sharply, and Rowan continued. “Lillian didn’t want anyone to know about it. Not even you, Tristan. The shaman said that Samantha wasn’t crazy. He said that she was like him—a spirit walker—and that she just needed to learn how to control it. But who believes that nonsense anyway? Caleb, you and I both know only old-timers and children believe in other worlds. It’s a tall tale shamans use to comfort the weak.”
    “If Lillian brought a shaman to the Citadel than she believed it. And Lillian is anything but weak.” Caleb’s brow creased with conflicting thoughts. “Did she study with the shaman too?”
    “No,” Rowan said vehemently. Then his face changed. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But even if there is such a thing as spirit walking and multiple universes—which we all know is pretty far-fetched—that doesn’t explain this.” Rowan gestured to Lily. “It’s impossible. Universes are closed systems. You can’t get matter or energy in or out.”
    “Conservation of energy,” Lily muttered, nodding her head. She desperately wished she were back in Mr. Carnello’s class talking about this, rather than living it.
    “What did you say?” Rowan asked sharply.
    “It’s the first law of thermodynamics,” Lily replied miserably. “Energy can be transformed, but it cannot be created or destroyed.” She slumped against the bars of her cage, accepting that they were never going to believe she was from another world. “So, basically, my being here makes this universe not an equal sign. It goes against a fundamental law of physics—the most fundamental law, actually.”
    Tristan looked at Rowan, and then back at Lily. “Thermo-what now?”
    “Thermodynamics.” Lily looked at their puzzled faces. “You guys do study physics in this world, right? You know—science class?”
    Tristan and Rowan shared another look. “Not exactly,” Tristan said. He looked her up and down. “Where did you say you were from?”
    “Are you falling for this, Tristan? She’s playing us,” Rowan said bitterly.
    “Ro. She doesn’t have her willstone. How can she be parted from it and just sit there?” Tristan asked plaintively. “If that were Lillian, she’d be screaming in pain.”
    “I don’t know how she’s doing it.” Rowan’s dark eyes burned with hatred. “But I know her. I know every cell in her body. That’s Lillian.”
    “I’m not Lillian. I’m Lily! She tricked me and kidnapped me!” Lily choked out, her frustration and desperation nearly brining her to tears. “I wasn’t thinking straight. I thought any place would be better than—” Lily broke off before she said more than she wanted to. She took a shaky breath and swallowed down a sob. “All I want is to go back to my own world and forget this ever happened to me.”
    “Fine. You’re not Lillian? Then prove it.”
    “Just