"Well, Botkin was an instructor, at least. He trained many of us in our Grisha abilities. Ana Kuya worked at the orphanage that I grew up in and that we evacuated to. Botkin was somewhat of a mercenary and she was extremely strict -- but ...they weren't bad people. They were found dead, hanging in the trees." All of the things that the Darkling did later in the war, it just all seemed so unnecessary and cruel. How was he furthering the cause of the Grisha if they were dead??

"When I confronted him about it, he seemed genuinely confused," Nina hurries to add. "I think... something happened. Something made him snap and it hasn't happened with the version that's here yet." The yet does hang between them, though.