EMBER’S POV

Knox finds me a couple of hours later, after Queenie’s left and the light’s gone gold across the mountains.

I’m sitting cross-legged in the middle of the enormous bed we share, pretending to sort the day’s spoils and actually just running my palm over the ridiculous soft weight of a coat I absolutely did not need, feeling that dangerous, unfamiliar thing again.

The one I keep waiting to be punished for. Peace.

He stops in the doorway.

“Ember.”

“Mm?”

“We need to discuss the gate.”

“Do we, though?” I don’t look up. “Or could the gate simply be a beautiful, unspoken mystery between us, a thing we never—”...