EMBER’S POV

“And none of that matters if you go back in there, set the room on fucking fire, pass out, bleed from your eye again, or, I don’t know, die.”

“I am not planning to die.”

“Nobody ever plans it, Ember. That is why death remains such an inconvenience.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

I grab her arm and make her stop; this is the first thing all morning that feels like something I can actually do, instead of another question I have to carry around until it eats me alive.

“We cannot save Marjorie with what I saw in Hale’s room. Hale looking old proves nothing. For all...