Callista found him in the study, as usual, but the door cracked open this time. His dark head bowed as he focused on something in his hands.

She hesitated, her hand hovering in the air, and her fingers were inches from the door.

She was never the one to make the first move. But that was the old Callista. This one—this new one—she wasn’t so scared of the shadows.

So she rapped her knuckles on the door and waited.

A pause, and the sound of papers shuffling. Then, finally, a voice.

"Come ...