Zoe POV

Dr. Miles is still breathing when Vark releases him. I can see it — the chest moving in shallow, desperate pulls, blood coming from his mouth in a continuous thin stream, pooling in the fur at the corner of his jaw. He is alive the way a candle is alive in wind: present, but barely, and not guaranteed to stay that way.

James sees it too.

The sound that comes out of him isn't a word and isn't quite a howl — it's something rawer than either, the sound a person ...