“Evander is a dog on a leash attached to an unkind collar,” Aurora interrupts me. “He is a harsh man, certainly. But that is because it is how he has been made. The world has been cruel to him and returning that cruelty is the only way he knows how to survive.” “That is not an excuse,” I remind her. “But it is an explanation,” she says gently. “Which can help us understand him. Evander is the very last of an ancient pack, one that was among the few who stood against Conri’s father.”
