Sophia's POVThe evening before the full moon, I found Leonidas in the east garden.

I hadn't been looking for him — I had come for the quiet, for the cold night air after seven days of cellar work, for the particular solitude of an outdoor space after too long inside stone walls. The garden was empty at that hour, or it should have been, which was the only explanation for why I had not prepared myself before I rounded the corner of the yew hedge and found him there.

He was sitting on the low ...