ARIA POINT OF VIEW

“Thorne.” Grief had a sound.

I learned that over the past week, not the loud, wailing grief of funerals, but the quiet kind. The kind that lived in empty corridors and dim chambers. The kind that pressed into your ribs when you breathed too deeply.

Shadowfang felt different without him.

I had taken refuge in one of the smaller council chambers that overlooked the inner gardens. It was quieter there with fewer footsteps and pitying looks. I sat near the open window, ...