EMBER’S POV

Her voice makes the sight of her even more disturbing. It is still Hale’s usual calm, level voice, except now it is coming from a face that looks decades older than the one I saw downstairs.

“Hale—”

“What are you doing in my room!” Her eyes drop to my hands, and her whole expression changes. “Put that down!”

“What the fuck happened to you?”

“Put it down!”

She crosses the room so quickly that I barely have time to pull the book back.

She tears it out of my hands hard enough to scrape the skin from my thumb, then clutches it against her chest with both arms....