EMBER’S POV

I can’t breathe.

I’m standing in the corridor with my back against the wall, my thumb bleeding and my chest so tight that every breath feels too small.

The Caelora bitch.

Hale said it so easily. Like the words were already familiar to her. Like she had known exactly what I was long before I ever learned the name myself.

My stomach drops.

She knows what Caelora is.

She knows what I am.

And she has known for a very long time.

“Ember!”

Queenie comes round the corner at a run, white to the lips.

“I couldn’t stop her, I’m so sorry, I couldn’t-” She’s got hold of...