Three weeks after the judgment, Lucian stood in the great hall without an Alpha cloak. He still moved carefully. The healer had cleared him to walk, work, and be irritating. Not to fight.

Isolde had asked the healer specifically. I had not. She told me the answer anyway

Leo called me Mom while looking for a red crayon. That was all. No audience. No ceremony. No one had asked him to practice.

We were in the ambassador wing sitting room after breakfast, surrounded by paper, broken crayons, and one wooden horse that had somehow ac

The Moon Rift looked smaller in daylight. That offended me. For three years it had lived in my head as the edge of the world. In sunlight, it was stone. Snowmelt. Black pines.

A white river far below. Still dangerous. Still deep. Not infinite. We stopped at the old over