EMBER’S POV

The movement is so fast it barely registers as motion — in a blink, his hand crossed the space between them in a devastating arc that splits Nathaniel’s skin from temple to jaw in three deep parallel gouges, ripping out an eye with no remorse.

Blood sprays across the wall in a bright fan, spattering the wood panelling in a pattern that will never fully come out, and before Nathaniel can even stagger Knox follows through with a downward slash that catches his shirt at the collar and rips it apart to the navel, fabric and skin splitting together, the chest under opening in three long shallow lines...