EMBER’S POV

I sit beside his bed. Knox sits beside me. His hand finds mine, and his thumb traces circles on my knuckles. The motion is slow, rhythmic, and grounding in a way that I need more than I’m willing to admit.

In that room, I tell Knox everything. The arrows, the plan, Queenie going for the gun, the man who grabbed her, firing the shot, Harrison’s men breaching the house. Harrison walking past me like I was nothing.

Maurice in the doorway. The speech. The knife. The gunshot. Gale dying chained to a pipe. Harrison’s last words. The trigger pull.

I tell it flatly, in order, like I’m reading...