Excerpt from We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Mejia, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Most people knew to fear the name and everyone who claimed it, but even the rest knew not to accept favors from them.

"I thought you might say that," said Sota after a long pause. "But I ask you again: What happens when you leave this closet? Sure, you might get lost in the shuffle tonight, but I happen to know there's a checkpoint being set up at the entrance to the government complex as we speak." He stopped here, assessing the storm clouds rolling across Dani's expression. "If I'm not mistaken, that's where your future husband resides?"

Dani glared at him, but she said nothing.

"And," Sota continued, like they were chatting over baskets of fruit in the market and not discussing her inevitable demise, "should you, say, fail to produce your identification documents? That certainly wouldn't be good, would it? They use a special word for people who try to trick the government, Dani; it starts with a T and it rhymes with ..."

"I know what it is," Dani spat. "What's your point?"

"Only that the choice between trusting me and going it alone isn't much of a choice at all. One of them involves taking these papers and going along on your merry way. The other involves a very small prison cell and the knowledge that everyone you know and love is in danger of joining you there."

Trained by her Primera instructors to analyze and see logic in even the most impossible situations, Dani called on every faculty she had been born with, as well as the ones she'd learned on this campus. There had to be another way out. One that didn't involve dying of exposure in the jungle while fleeing the police or accepting a favor from the least trustworthy group of cutthroats in Medio.

The seconds ticked away.

There was no other option.

"What's in it for you?" she asked.

"Why, Daniela, I'm offended."

"Come on," she said, impatient. "I know who La Voz is. You're a criminal, and you're not here to be my savior, so what do you want in exchange for those?"

Sota held out the papers, and much to Dani's disgust, she took them. "Unlike your friends out there, who are so eager to join the ranks of good little upper-class dolls," he said, gesturing to the closed closet door, "we're in the business of helping people. Freeing them. Ask yourself who's imprisoning those same people. Torturing them. Sending their children over the wall to starve. It's so easy to join up, so easy to forget the harm being done every day. Even when you've seen it firsthand."

Dani felt the beginnings of a flush creeping up her chest, and she was glad for the high neck of her Primera dress. It wasn't her fault people were starving and dying. She didn't have to feel guilty just because she'd gotten out. She was about to say as much when Sota continued.

"Think about the crimes your precious government condones, not just the ones they punish. Then you can talk to me about who the real criminals are. If we're not all free, none of us are free. You remember that."

There was fire in his eyes when he spoke, a song in his throat, nearly turning his words hypnotic. There was a small part of Dani that wanted to buy into his logic. But Primeras thought with their heads, not their hearts. This was what these "revolutionaries" did. They made everything emotional. They leaned on pretty words until violence sounded like freedom. Until the extreme seemed justified.

"Save it," she finally said, though her voice was rougher than she liked. "I just need to get out of here. I'm doing what I have to do to survive. I'm not signing up to set things on fire."

"Whatever you say." Sota smirked, already turning toward the door. "But you're already seeing things differently. Your face might hide your feelings, but you can't hide who you are. Not forever."

Dani opened her mouth to protest, but he didn't give her a chance.

"I marked you as interviewed on the student manifest," he said. "You're safe for tonight. Present these to the officer at tomorrow's checkpoint and you won't have any trouble."

Excerpted from We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Mejia. Copyright © 2019 by Tehlor Mejia. Excerpted by permission of Katherine Tegan Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.