EMBER’S POV
“Knox—”
“So I loved her from behind glass. Never fully committed, never fully gone. And she stayed anyway because she was brave and stubborn and she believed I’d eventually let her in, and I didn’t, Ember. I never let her in. Not all the way. She wanted more, and she never said it out loud, but she resented me. She hated the man I was and couldn’t be and hated the goddess even more for trapping her with the worst of men. And then she died and I couldn’t even remember how because my mind erased the memories to protect me from the guilt, and the IRONY—” His laugh is bitter and short. “The irony is that the guilt found me anyway. It’s been finding me every day for ten years.”
“That is not what I was saying at the lodge.”
“It’s what I heard.”
“Then you heard wrong.” I turn on
