Grayson's POV

Baron turned six on a Tuesday.

He'd been asking about the training ground for two months. Not in the way kids ask for things they want — in the way Baron asked for things, which was direct and patient and slightly unnerving in someone his size. "When I'm six," he'd said, back in January. "You said when I'm six."

I had said that.

So at seven in the morning on his birthday, before the cake and before the presents and before Lira woke up and decided the ...