EMBER’S POV

Queenie slows beside me. “What does that even mean?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it? What failed?” I rub at my forehead. “What could have failed because Celeste died? Why did her death affect anything Hale was doing? And she dies on the night of Greenvale, and Greenvale sits right there in Hale’s journal, too. What the hell could have been that important to Hale all those years ago? Did she know something about that night? About Knox? About the sixty-three? Or did whatever this was only start mattering after Celeste died?”

Queenie takes a few more steps, then shakes her head.

“But none of that proves Celeste was...