The novella Powerful (2024), by Lauren Roberts, is book “1.5” in Roberts’s The Powerless Trilogy. This young adult/fantasy/romance tale comes chronologically between book one, Powerless, and book two, Reckless. Powerful focuses on Adena, a side character in Powerless, as she attempts to survive in the dystopian city of Loot after she and her best friend Paedyn are separated. Paedyn has been taken for the kingdom of Ilya’s Purging Trials, an almost certain death sentence. As Adena and a mysterious man, Makoto, work together to contact Paedyn and a friend of Makoto’s who has also been taken, the two begin to fall in love.

Author Lauren Roberts, a devoted reader of fantasy romance, drew on both her reading within the genre and events in her own life to write Powerful. Like many works with dystopian settings, Powerful considers themes related to power, opportunity, and freedom; like many romantasy works, Powerful engages with relationships that break social boundaries and struggle to succeed despite adversity.

This study guide refers to the 2024 Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

Content Warning: Powerful contains depictions of death and violence, including sexual aggression against women and child abuse.

Plot Summary

Five years before the main narrative begins, Adena meets Paedyn. The two girls decide to team up to survive in the slums of the city of Loot: Paedyn steals food for both of them, and Adena, a seamstress, makes sure they are both properly clothed. The two remain inseparable until, in the narrative present, Paedyn is selected to represent Loot in the Kingdom of Ilya’s Purging Trials, a violent contest that most participants do not survive. When Adena goes to watch Paedyn being escorted away to the Trials, she catches the eye of Makoto, also known as Mak, who is there watching his own loved one, Hera, being taken away to the Trials. The next day, Makoto rescues Adena from an Imperial guard and shares with her his plan to get into the castle to see Hera: He wants Adena to make him an Imperial uniform so that he can use his “Phaser” abilities to move through the castle wall and then search undetected to find where Hera is being held. In return, he will make sure that she has food and water, and he will take her with him to the castle so that she can see Paedyn.

Although Adena finds Makoto condescending and cold and Makoto finds Adena naively cheerful and far too talkative, the two form an alliance. As Adena begins working on the Imperial uniform for Makoto, the two begin to see past their differences and develop a mutual attraction. Fearing the vulnerability love represents and feeling undeserving of Adena, Mak resists this attraction until, one night, Adena is harassed by men on the street and comes to him for safety and comfort. He goes after the men who frightened Adena, and although she does not know what might have happened between him and the men, she notices that he takes greater care to protect her after this incident. Adena expresses admiration for his fighting and weapons skills, and Mak insists on teaching her self-defense. This new skill comes in handy when one of the men who harassed her on the street finds her out selling her work and resumes his threats. Makoto holds the man captive while Adena punches him in the mouth. Afterward, an Imperial guard appears and tells Adena she’s being summoned to the castle to sew a dress for Paedyn for a ball to be held for the Trial contestants. She hurries to tell Mak and is surprised by his negative reaction.

Makoto confesses that he is not really a “Phaser” like Adena—he is a “Wielder” who needs to be able to borrow her ability to pass through solid matter to get into the castle. His whole plan hinges on Adena being with him. He also tells Adena that his real intention is to escape from Ilya with Hera. Adena leaves for the castle, furious and hurt. Makoto uses his Imperial uniform to get into the castle to see Adena and explain that Hera is his cousin who has protected him since they ran away from home together as children. Makoto’s father had wanted him to turn himself in as a Wielder, but Makoto knows that the king would’ve had him killed to ensure that the king’s own son, Kai, is the only Wielder in Ilya. Makoto has hidden in the shadows ever since—but now that Hera is facing death herself, he owes it to her to try to rescue her. Finally, he confesses his feelings for Adena and reveals how conflicted he is. Adena convinces Makoto that an attempt to steal Hera away from the castle will only result in both his and Hera’s deaths. Makoto asks her to come see him in Loot when she finishes at the castle, saying that he cannot bear to lose both her and Hera. Prince Kai’s brother, Prince Kitt, the intended heir to the throne, enters Adena’s room just after Mak leaves. He asks Adena’s advice about impressing Paedyn, for whom he has developed feelings. Adena tells him to be honest and open-minded.

On the following day, Adena slips away from the castle and returns to Mak’s smithy for a visit. She insists that his decision to leave Hera in the castle was the right one—Makoto is not so sure, and he continues to suffer immense guilt. He opens up to Adena, revealing that his father, an abusive man with an alcohol addiction, gave him the scar on his mouth when he was 14, right after threatening to turn Makoto over to the king. In the following days, Adena slips away again and again to meet Mak and learn more about him. On one of her trips out of the castle, she runs into the king himself, who seems very interested in her relationship with Paedyn. He also seems disappointed that Paedyn survived the first Trial. To her horror, Adena learns that Hera did not survive. Mak is devastated by Hera’s death, but with Adena’s help, he’s able to process his grief. The two become closer and finally share a kiss.

On the day before the third and final Trial, Adena makes Mak promise to meet her at the Fort—Adena and Paedyn’s ramshackle home in the slums. They plan to spend the night together there after Adena returns from dressing Paedyn for the evening’s ball. However, on her way out of the castle, she is summoned to see the king and fails to meet Makoto. For reasons she cannot understand, the king has her fingers broken and throws her in the dungeon. Later, she’s drugged and carried out to the “Pit” at the center of the arena where the final Trial will take place. Mak goes to the arena to find her, knowing that Adena had planned to be there to watch Paedyn’s final competition of the Trials. He is anguished to realize that the king intends to use Adena as the target during the final competition: Combatants will navigate a complex maze surrounding the center of the arena, and the first of them to get to the center and kill Adena will be declared the winner.

Adena regains consciousness. She cannot understand what is happening and keeps wishing to wake up from the nightmare so that she can gaze at the stars and be comforted by Paedyn. When Paedyn finally reaches her, Adena sees great distress on Paedyn’s face; she looks down and realizes that she has been impaled by another contestant just before Paedyn’s arrival. Makoto watches in horror from the stands as Adena dies in Paedyn’s arms. Sobbing, he leaves the arena. Once outside, Makoto feels Adena’s power and realizes that she is still there, watching over him. Adena, from her new perspective as a part of the sun, comments on her love for Paedyn and Mak, saying that she will always be there to watch over them.