LILALyric plopped beside me, her braid falling over her shoulder, face glowing, “She’s crawling. I mean, really crawling now,” she said, lifting Solenne’s discarded pacifier and wiping it on her sleeve.Cowrie crawled beside her, copying her form, elbows tucked, legs pumping, yelling sound effects
LILA“She’s going to have your temper too,” I added, pulling the sheet up to my waist, too tired to sit, too full to sleep. “And probably your refusal to listen.”He smiled at that, the first real one I’d seen since the pain started, and turned to me with something brighter in his eyes. “Then we’ll
LILAI carried her through nine moons, each one brighter than the last, and my body changed; soft where I’d once been taut, full where I’d once been hollow, every dream thick with her heartbeat.Lyric stayed near me from the first cramp to the last swollen turn of my belly, no matter the hour, no ma
LILAHis fingers grazed the back of my hand, before he moved to the next patch, eyes low, breath uneven. I watched him work in silence, shoulders flexing, back bent. He looked up when he heard Cowrie shriek alongside Gavin’s laughter.“She’s good for him,” he said softly.“They’re good for each othe
LILAThe sun broke through the trees in long, golden slashes, and Lyric shoved a trowel into my hand like it was a sword. “You plant. I dig. No whining,” she said, already on her knees, ripping weeds from the hard-packed earth.Her hair was tied back with a vine, her fingers caked brown before I got
LILAThe courtyard in Raven’s Peak had thinned, the fires smoldering to embers while ash drifted low across the cracked stone.Lyric had taken Cowrie and Gavin inside. But Tyler stayed, rooted to the same spot where he’d fought beside me. He stood like he didn’t feel the wind or the dusk or the cold