EMBER’S POV

Then I drag myself up and into a long hot shower that turns my abused muscles from screaming to merely complaining, and I dress in soft clothes, and I feel almost human, right up until I realise I left my phone down in the training room.

On the bench, where I set it before Knox dragged me onto the mat. It’s been sitting down there for hours.

So I pad back down through the quiet house, still-damp hair cool on my neck, toward the sub-level stairs — and the house at this hour is dim and hushed and half-lit, everyone about their morning business elsewhere, and I’m not...