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The door ahead of us stands ajar, as if waiting Bree doesn’t need to tell me this is our family’s bunk, because there’s a purple scrap of fabric tied around the doorknob It’s frayed at the edges and clu bolts of thread spark across the rag, a symbol that is neither Red nor Silver, but mine A cohtning that surges inside ofwheels behind the door, and a bit of warh me I would know the sound of my father’s wheelchair anywhere

Bree doesn’t knock He knows everyone’s still awake, waiting for me

There’s more room than in the mersive, but the bunk is still small and cramped At least there’s space to move, and plenty of beds for the Barroith even a bit of living space around the doorway A single , cut high in the far wall, is closed tight against the rain, and the sky see in the overwhels, banners, red on every surface and hanging from every wall I should’ve known it would come to this Gisa sewed dresses for Silvers once; now she painstakinglywhatever she can find with the torn sun of resistance They aren’t pretty, with uneven stitches and si compared to the art she used to weave That’s my fault too

She sits at the little metal table, frozen with a needle in her half-healed claw of a hand For a mo but not knowing the girl they’re looking at The last time they saw me, I couldn’t control myself I was trapped, weak, confused Now I a bruises and betrayals, but I knohat I am, and what I must do

I have becohtens me

"Mare" I can barely hear my mother’s voice My name trembles on her lips

Like back in the Stilts, when my sparks threatened to destroy our ho that isn’t nearly long enough, she pulls me to an e against e that it returns nohen I’hosts overfor the bruises beneath like she can see right through the fabric "You’re hurt," sheher head "I can’t believe they let you walk, after--well, after all that"

I’lad she doesn’t mention Naercey, the arena, or before I don’t think I’h to relive them, not so soon

Dad chuckles darkly "She can do as she pleases There’s no let to it" He shifts and I noticesmall in the faround, and easier forood to sit

Tra "I’ to the infirer a word in "

I can only nod If I openThe hurt, the cold, the prince who betrayed me, the prince who saved ht already know, I can’t bring usted, afraid of oes with Tra our brother out the door Kilorn reainst the wall as if he wants to fall into it and disappear

"Are you hungry?" Mo herself at a tiny excuse for a cabinet "We saved soh I haven’t eaten in I don’t even kno long, I shakebut sleep

Gisa notes ht eyes narrowed She pushes back a piece of rich, red hair the color of our blood "You should sleep" She speaks with so much conviction I wonder who the older sister really is "Let her sleep"

"Of course, you’re right" Again, Mo, this time out of the chair and toward a bunk withwith the thin blankets, putting th to follow, letting her tuck me in like she never has before "Here we are, baby, sleep"