EMBER’S POV

I sit with that. It’s enormous. It’s too big to hold all at once, so I do the thing I always do with things too big to hold — I set it down, gently, and reach for the thing I can do.

“Then I should start reading,” I say. “Now. Today. While we wait for Friday.” I look up at him. “And while I’m in there, I might find something for Rayana. Something to buy her time. That’s worth a hundred dead birds, Knox. That’s a thing I can do with my hands and a book, not with the wolf. Let me try.”

Something in his face softens,...