EMBER’S POV

“So they gave up,” Devika says. “Esmerelda gave up. When the ritual failed the third time, she told me the truth, plainly, the way only she ever did. That the Maiden had chosen you and would not be moved, not by ritual, not by anything, and that meant there was only one thing left to do. If we couldn’t take the god out of you, we had to keep her asleep inside you. Forever. Buried so deep she never woke, never blazed, never gave Isolde a single thread to follow home.” Her eyes lift to mine, wet now. “That’s when the higher grade pills began, Ember. They knocked...