I slept well that night. I focused on the lingering adrenaline as it left my body, and my exhaustion took over. Thankfully, it kept my nerves and thoughts of Ezra at bay. I felt stiff when I woke, surprised that it was well past dawn. I hurried to get ready, but even rushing, Alice was already waiting for me when I left the bathroom.I stifled a yawn and looked at her sheepishly. “I couldn’t sleep last night,” I explained.She nodded in understanding and waited for me to sit and start on my hair. I had a thousand questions that bubbled up, but I suppressed them. Alice didn’t seem any different than normal, but she rarely did. I admired her steady composition her slightly aloof behavior; it was grounding, it was something I could count on in a world of uncertainty, and for the first time, I realized I was grateful to her. “What?” she asked. I realized I was smiling at her in the mirror, but I didn’t immediately erase it, just let it fall slowly. I blinked a few times and decided on

“Sam’s coming,” I said. Ezra’s hands dropped, but they lingered behind me, and I reluctantly pulled myself off him.I didn’t get or send a note, but this is where I held council now. I realized it was also where I felt the safest at this pack.Ezra stood and looked back at me with longing and the briefest, brightest smile I thought I might have imagined before he faded into the shadows of the bookshelves near the door. “Leave the letter in our book,” he whispered and then disappeared as if he were a shadow himself. Sam knocked and opened the door. Ezra was a blur on silent feet behind him. Sam didn’t even notice him a few feet away. I shivered; he was a honed killer, but the shiver was more of delight and lust than fear. “I was hoping you were here,” Sam wore a smile, but it was shallow. “You look flushed. Are you okay?”I instinctually touched my warm cheeks. “I was standing too close to the fire,” I said, trying not to smile at the too-recent memory. I straightened my skirt and m

After Ezra left the library last night, I tried to push the thoughts of us away and focus. He left all the details I needed in our book, and I scribbled the outcome of my own meeting. My heart was thudding the entire time, and I was unsure if it was because of Ezra or how close I was, we were from taking a public stand against Black River. After a quiet breakfast, Tia almost knocked me over in the hallway, handing me a note. I was expecting it to be from Sam, but it was in Ezra’s neat handwriting. How did he know about Tia? Did I tell him? But I kept forgetting that he was a hired assassin; his job was to know things.Our Place That was all it said, and I nodded at Tia gratefully. She was bouncing up and down, and her eyes sparkled. She nodded back vigorously and almost skipped away.I walked into the library and up next to him. He nodded slowly in acknowledgment before looking back vacantly into the fire. He was tenser than normal, and I knew I was too.“No talk of his death?” Ezr

I froze, but Nolan did too. I didn’t know how much he saw, but me standing over his very dead brother in an entirely blood-stained white dress probably didn’t look so good. I opened my mouth, trying to un-freeze, but Nolan moved first. He bolted, shifting almost mid-air, that shocked me more than anything. I willed my feet to move, and they finally did. I started to stumble after him, my mind racing with all the negative possibilities, and my body fought to keep up.Can we catch him? - I asked AksalaWe’ve only shifted once - she explained gently, too gently.That would take time, and by now, he would already be almost back in the eyesight of the crowd if he wasn’t already.I could have maybe thrown the dagger; I could have tried to shift earlier, but that was no use now. I knew in the back of my mind that I made a huge mistake. I wasn’t listening hard enough, wholly focused on my own fight. You always had to be aware of the greater battle around you. There rarely was only one oppon

I wanted to talk to Ezra and send a note to Sam, but Alice intercepted me on the steps, insisting that I get ready for the funeral. I hadn’t really seen her outside my room before, and that shocked me. She wasn’t ever in the kitchen, but I knew there were other tasks. I hadn’t thought of that before that before, and I should have been.Where was she when she wasn’t with me? “The funeral?” I asked Alice as she brushed my hair. Again. She dropped my hair and met my eye. I didn’t look away. Not now. “Yes?” she asked. “What about it? Are you okay to go?” She eyed me as if death might tear me at the seams.“What do you know about it?” I asked. I couldn’t be caught blindsighted.She looked over her shoulder as if anyone else could possibly be in the room. Well, Ezra could. That thought filled me with a jolt of joy even though I knew he wasn’t. I didn’t sense him. “Two of them,” she whispered, her eyes wide, and I made mine match hers. “Why didn’t they say?” I asked, a hand over my chest