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

Lucian waited three weeks before asking again. I noticed. I did not reward him for waiting. That would have made patience another currency. But I noticed. By then I was back at White Moon court.

Winter had broken. The mountain roads were mud instead of ice. Leo had comp