The Mage Rebellion
    
The iron in the Magecell is sapping my magic. I’ll never escape. I was captured by the Imperian military while trying to join the Mage Rebellion. Now, I’m imprisoned—and condemned to execution. After living fifteen horrible years, death might be a relief.
    
Mages like me have always been enslaved. We’re forced to use magic to shape stone and metal, sprout crops, and make weapons for the Imperian army. I was on the run from the military. But then came the Mage Rebellion. Aryanna Selene, a young mage, formed an army of mages from across Imperia. Quickly, the Rebellion grew powerful. The mages seemed about to defeat the Imperian king and triumph.
    
Then, a traitorous rebel found the king. Hoping to collect the bounty on Aryanna’s head, he told all he knew about the uprising. (After explaining, the mage was killed.) Wielding this crucial information, the king destroyed the Rebellion. Mages were captured and locked inside the Magecell—the prison where I am now. It’s full of iron, which destroys our magic. More mages died every day. Then, a month ago, the king declared that Aryanna had been killed. The Rebellion ended with her.
    
Tonight, I’ll be executed. I stare at the door of my cell waiting for guards to arrive. I hear keys clink. Here they are. The door creaks open. But a black-cloaked figure yanks me out and unlocks my shackles.

“Quiet,” a girl’s voice hisses. She frees every other mage in the hall. We gape. “Follow me,” she murmurs.

We dart through the Magecell. The girl has keys to every door. She guides us out of the prison and into the surrounding woods. We follow her to a camp in the trees. Magic glows everywhere. Mages gaze at us. The girl removes her hood.

The prisoners gasp. I know that face—from WANTED posters, from scavenged newspapers. And the teenager in front of me is supposed to be dead. But there she stands. She broke us out of the Magecell. And she’s grinning.

“Welcome,” says Aryanna Selene, “to the Mage Rebellion.”