in's

lverbrook turned toward me and my sister's name on my lips, when something inside my chest tore

ming across my polished shoes like a wound, and a

a rope I had carried my entire life, one I had never noticed because it had always

p myself, and her name rang through m

of rose gold satin, her face tilted up in sweet con

it belonged to someone else. "I have simply had too m

mething quick and calculating flickered behind her larg

queezing my hand. "But promise y

romi

my sister's behalf and laughed in all the right places and clinked glasses with the Harrowgate twins. But the hollow

r's hair while Father stood proudly at the back, and the whole scene glowed in the amber warmth of a perfect family e

ace at the en

ide enough for one more person, and I stared at it

is L

It had been hours since she walked out with that ridiculous suitcase and that stubborn ch

rmly. She is hiding in the garden or the stable

side her door, and she would appear at breakfast with swollen eyes

d, and I pulled out my phone w

g a tantrum. Mother is upset, a

yet nothing came back. There was no reply, no typing bubble,

a flat, dead tone, and a recorded voice inf

curled. "Of course she did. She wants us

but the words were growing thin an

s abandoned on a velvet chair, tied with string, their covers already smudged with a stranger's fingerprints. Serap

areful handwriting, a remedy for fever in newborn pups, with a tin

throat closed

interruption,

respectful step away with his hands clasped behind his

n the northern road about an hour ago," he said in a lo

istaken. Linnet is going to Northfang Academy in F

reywatch transport, and she carried a single suitc

tilted. I thought of the brown envelope that had fallen to the floor of her room, and the crest st

ond page. It is n

innian, what do you know

cial garrison, and they take very few recru

rvi

raphine gazing up at me with wide, shining eyes. She glanced at the notebook in my

rushed back in like

ly. "Everyone is waiting for us. You pro

nt. I need to ask Finni

Corvin. I do not want to spoil things with Linnet any further, and I know you do not either." Her fingers tightened around mine

come home so thin and so fragile that we had all sworn to shield her from every sorrow. I looked at my family, gold

, the instinct to protect whoever cried the

nnian quietly. "Keep watch on th

young

tucked inside mine and the knife glinting in the light. The flash popped, and the crowd applau

et my phone facedown on the nearest table, because I could

ady. Stop throw

ough the back of the

ht and silvery across the floor, and I stood with one hand pressed to the co

tonight, something I had never kn

he reach of any call I could place, my l