When Kala found Vox at the tower’s core, he was not a monster. He was a small, shriveled thing, wearing a cracked jester’s cap.
Vox tried to lie. But in her presence, the words turned to dust.
In the Ember Court, where smoke curled like silk and the sky burned a permanent twilight orange, lived the Dog Princess, Kala. She was not a dog in the way of paws and fur, but a princess of the Hound Dynasty, with long, velvet ears, a crown of polished bone, and a nose that could sniff a lie from a league away.
"You stole me," Kala said, "because my nose reminds you that you cannot hide from what you are."