LOGIN~Valeria~
Connor folded his arms and glanced between me and Dad with open disappointment. “First, you defend them. Th
~Valeria~Connor folded his arms and glanced between me and Dad with open disappointment. “First, you defend them. Then you let them turn a preparation meeting into a public circus. Forgive us if we question whether either of you understands what this ceremony demands.”Zane took a step forward. “Show them respect, old man or I’ll teach you the right way to speak.”
~Valeria~ “I do not care what title or identity you think I lack,” Alerion said. “None of that changes the fact that I will protect Valeria. Your approval means nothing to me. If she wants me beside her, that is where I’ll stay.”Silence followed.
~Valeria~Dad gathered the royal old troops for a preparation meeting for my restoration ceremony, and one scornful look thrown at the guys told me they were not welcome here.“What exactly are Cassian’s sons doing here?” one of the troops demanded. “Guards, send them out.”Zane let out a hum
~Valeria~We'd been home for maybe three hours. Long enough to eat, shower, dump our bags, and stare at each other like we all survived something we probably shouldn't have. Then Caius sat down with the three tokens lined up in front of him and said we needed to combine them tonight."I’m not cut out for that right now, man." Zane pulled a face. "It can wait till morning."
~Lysander~Getting out of bed without waking her was one of the harder things I'd done recently and the bar had been pretty high lately.My body fought me the whole way. The dizziness hit the second I got upright, and I grabbed the bedframe and stayed still until it passed. When it eventually did, I went over to the window to observe. Outside was the training ground. I could see it from here, the open space behind the house, the worn patches of grass where we trained. Empty now in the early morning dark.I stood there and looked at it and made a list in my head.Strength. I needed more of it. Alerion had it, Zane had his speed, Caius had his head, and I had what. Quick reflexes and the ability to make everything into a joke. That wasn't going to cut it when the Dark Wolf King came for the ceremony and Val needed people around her who could actually protect her. I found a notebook on the side table. Pen inside the cover. I took them both back to the window so I could see the light co
~Lysander~I turned my head slowly, mostly just to see if I could, and that's when I saw her.Val was asleep in the chair next to my bed. Head down on her arms, the way you fall asleep when you sat down for just a second and then didn't mean to stay. Her hair had fallen across her face and she was breathing slow and even and she looked more relaxed than I'd seen her look in weeks, which honestly said everything about the current state of our lives that she was getting her best rest in a hospital chair in a room with her possibl
~Valeria~The photo felt like it was burning a hole in my backpack as I walked back to the library the next day.I'd spent the entire night staring at it, trying to convince myself I was imagining things. But every time I looked at that little girl's posture, the way she leaned into the man's prote
~Caius~I'd seen enough interrogations to recognize when someone was fishing for information, and Michael was practically casting a net every time he talked to Valeria.The kid was good though. Had that perfect balance of casual interest and helpful concern that made people want to spill their secr
~Valeria~I was pretty sure the guy with the newspaper was going to follow me home and suffocate me in my sleep.Okay, maybe that was too out of line, but he'd been sitting at the same table for three hours pretending to read about local boring drama while watching every move Michael and I made. An
~Valeria~I kept having the same weird dream, and it was starting to freak me out.Every night for the past week, I'd close my eyes and boom, there I was, standing in some forest I'd never seen before. And right in front of me was this huge castle.Not like the Disney kind with sparkly towers. This







