"I know the promises I have made, and the promises I have broken," Harrow says, nearly breathless from the slap of Gideon's words. Her fingernails bite again into her palm, their ragged edges cutting deep enough to draw blood. Yet more flows out of her nose, her dark eyes locked on Gideon's golden ones and neither of them willing to look away. "The guidelines by which I have made myself live. How dare you, of all people, you, blight the covenant I have made."

She can feel the sick and horrible truth sitting in her chest, waiting to be spat into the open. If not for the knock on the door, Harrow thinks it might have come forth, in all its excruciating detail. Instead, she makes herself look away. "Get the fucking door."