DANTE

Six weeks out Dara said rest and meant it differently than she'd meant it before.

Not the rest of recovery, not the rest prescribed after a specific exertion. The rest of preparation, the deliberate slowing of pace that the body required before something enormous, the way you didn't run the morning before a long race.

She delivered this at the Thursday assessment with the specific calm of someone who had been waiting to say it and had chosen the right moment.

Kira received it with the ...