he south tower, and it had a

had put fresh wildflowers

for a long time before she u

essage. Someone had gone up a

e they knew her well enough

fic and unperforming in th

ver had th

tstand, sealed with a crest

had always known as Uncle Jay,

and brought her books and cal

deep ocea

the bed and

itten, and it began: Bella.

rphanage intake form.

d it fo

, you have shifted, and you ar

dy failed at the thing I most w

e for eighteen years and I have

as correction, and I am no

iva

read what follows before you

g. It doesn't. But because you

n precise my whole life about e

most owe you

s. We have been mates sinc

arlock is not supposed to ex

A DE L

osed to have made us impossible

ther Rosa once wrote, has i

sib

r, at the height of a war

knew what you would be bef

er and I, in three weeks of th

r had - that the only way to

ge too small to interest anyone

rd that could be tr

ave you was a ward. Every b

or an education you were ne

fessor Alvarado called excepti

I could not arrange

are from a distance of thre

e back lane on your birthday a

a list of things you want to k

helped the Cristobal element

running without ever o

en watching you become yours

they love growing toward the

w the difference. I am asking

ter you will find two stones.

ther will explain their purpose

I a

for eighteen years in a silen

ever

it cost y

J.

the letter fo

had a policy about this - no

pensive and she was eighteen

ad. She would feel this later,

d into the

ent Bloodli

e crystal on a chain, which

mother had pressed into her ha

ept the bad dreams away. She h

It had been

aceted, thumb-sized, a deep

d yellows and something alm

through her palm that had no

st, but slower,

g a lock it was made

does i

ou have been doing with the

than you have been allowed to

ress it against

s Eye against the pale

not dramatic. It was not a

didn't know how to hold. It wa

ndow is opened - a subtle expa

s in t

d. The grain of the wood in

. The individual threads in the

colors she hadn't noticed in t

applied over decades, each la

surf

. Now you can begin to

nocked at

mom

e nightstand. She folded the

in the mirror above the dresse

omething different, lit from i

be invisible to anyone who

ike someone who had just f

been in progress for eightee

ened t

A DE L

in the corridor. The first

sion of someone conducting a r

or friendly. "I'm Beta Braven.

. And th

king at the

ed back. A face that had ang

of appearance than the one she

d a letter that had used up all

er of old honey, of turning l

and they were looking at her

ate na

and warm cinnamon w

reno clan," Braven finishe

uri

oked at her. Something in th

understanding independe

she said. "During the shift.

arrived with the Lu

atching specifically the spot

rimeter observation." She had

e's attention. In Cristobal it

atchin

answered, the kind that bel

was the only tell available.

arm

the enti

rincess. Not until I've earn

two weeks to become someone

of that actua

is mouth. Rapha

e to make a warrior," he sa

ifferent things with different

ong enough for actual

ent Bloodli

's ho

re useful than

oorway. "Come in. My mother

onight. Might as well do

an to lighten in the east. By

a rough map of the world

d the thousand-year-old wound

nce simply b

she'd never met w

d only known as a wom

r she'd only kn

ll of people who had

inner voice named Sol an

d and a body she'd wor

e needed two hours before t

he d

you," s

expression she had caught t

urfaced briefly before his pr

Sleep if

won

w. But

She stood in the room that w

ome now, and she picked up the

lar sensation of a door standin

oug

ed three things

she was going to