EMBER’S POV
Knox makes a sound. A low and guttural sound coming from somewhere deeper than his chest, somewhere that lives in the spine and the blood and the ancient lineage of what he is.
His hand on my hip goes rigid.
“But here’s the part I can never undo.” Nathaniel’s voice is breaking now. “Celeste agreed to the test. She agreed because she loved you, and she wanted you cured because she believed your distance could be fixed if the feral gene was gone. She would have done anything I asked if I told her it would fix the gene. If it would make you feel closer to her at heart. But Celeste had her own—” He stops and clears his throat. “She had her own feelings about Kieran. Feelings she’d been navigating for months. Feelings I KNEW about and used as leverage because a scenario with gen
