LOGINOwen“What the…” Diego sputters out as I slam the door behind us. I’ve brought us into the music room which is empty save for a smattering of instruments.I stare Diego down more intensely than I mean to. “What of Natasha?”My brother seems immediately on his guard. “What of her?”“Did they believe
Owen“Isaiah,” I call from the threshold to the library. The first shelf has been completely redone, and its sisters line the walls in various forms of completion.One of my most trusted guards, the one who befriended Amelia, the one who I struggle to be near for the way he reminds me of her, approa
NatashaI don’t stay at the campfire for long after Carolina and Missy are dragged off to bed by the man I found out is their uncle.I didn’t have the heart to ask where their parents are.“I think I’ll get some sleep,” I say as I stand. I’m surprised when people I’ve just newly met through Carolina
Sebastian’s smile grows impossibly wider. “Of course. You don’t have to ask my permission to talk to her.”“That’s what I said!” a male adult a few seats away says. He must be their dad or otherwise guardian.“Yeah, but,” Carolina says, glancing nervously at me again. She lowers her voice as she ret
NatashaDante was brought back to the kingdom this morning. He spent one night in the First Quarter, and warriors took shifts watching over him as he slept.Sebastian and another Sun Warrior I don’t know bagged him at dawn and walked him back to the Red Forest to find his way home. I wanted to go wi
Diego angles himself so he can see me and Marion. “This morning, before you arrived at the palace,” he says, nodding to me, “the Alpha Prince informed me of a plan to sniff out our mole.”“What mole?” I ask.Diego raises his eyebrows. “Me.”“What?” Sebastian asks. I’m confused, too.“The beheadings,
“Fuck Father? Since when have you and I traded places?”I laugh, too. “Since I found something of more value to me than his acceptance.”Diego wags his eyebrows. “Freeing, isn’t it?”I laugh again, remembering Raleigh is in the room. “Please don’t tell the king I said that.”“Said what?” he replies
“It may seem insignificant to you,” he says, “but in all my years, not one person has understood or cared to even know what it was like to be abandoned by my brother for reasons out of my control. The fact that you… well, it wouldn’t be so bad to bring you joy.”It’s the way he can’t look at me whil
Owen“I swear,” I mutter loudly enough to be heard as I knock twice on Diego’s bedroom door and reach for the doorknob, “if you’re in your own room after I went looking for you all the way out underneath the willow tree…”I open my brother’s door to find a female in his arms.But not just any female
OwenFather ushers Diego in, asking if he needs us to call for the doctor. He shakes his head, looking between us. “I came to debrief you on my meeting with the Sun Warriors, but I can come back if—”“No, no,” Father cuts him off, closing the door to his office and motioning us over to the conferenc







