RhysI've never invited anyone into the workshop before.It's a small, crooked building behind the stables, half storage shed and half whatever I needed it to be at the time, and for most of my life it's been the one place in Ashwood where nobody expects me to say anything. Elias doesn't come here because he doesn't see the point of it. Kai comes only when he needs something fixed and wants to complain about it while I do. Father knows it exists the way he knows most things about me, in broad strokes, never the details.So when I hear footsteps outside the door on a gray afternoon, three days after Kai's rigged sparring match, I assume it's Kai.It isn't."Is this where you disappear to," Kira asks, standing in the doorway with her arms crossed loosely, curious rather than guarded. "Elias said I'd find you here. He said it like a warning.""It's not a warning." I set down the knife I've been working on. "It's just not very interesting.""Can I come in?"I should say something clever.
Last Updated : 2026-11-07
