Chapter 4

The word landed in that room the way a dropped plate does.

Bree's hand closed on my sleeve. Elder Kane sat forward in his chair. One of the young trackers on the floor made a small noise and was elbowed by the other, and at the edge of the group somebody said *what* out loud without meaning to.

Cassian laughed.

It was not cruel. That is what I want to record about it, because it would be easier to tell this if it had been. He laughed the way you laugh when a friend says something absurd, warm and a…