Kali’s POV . My hands were still smoking. Even when I scrubbed them raw against the basin in Celine’s quarters, even when the cold water ran deep over my knuckles and splashed onto the stone floor, the heat refused to leave. It lived right beneath my skin, a low, pulsing hum like trapped lightning looking for a way out. I stared down at my reflections in the water, but I didn't recognize the face looking back at me. The wide, frightened eyes, the pale cheeks stained with dried tears—that was the girl who had spent her whole life hiding in the background, trying not to take up too much space, trying to be good enough, quiet enough, invisible enough to deserve the way Emmett looked at her. That girl was gone. She had burned up in the forest clearing, reduced to cinders right along with the man who had grabbed me, the man Kora had been conspiring with. "Stop scrubbing, Kali. You'll take the skin right off your hands." The cool, calm voice pulled me out of the spiral. I looked
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