“Ever since that, we were best friends.” She closed her eyes. To be loved by Una was all she’d ever needed, her company like a warm and golden light. “She was my new purpose. I would’ve done anything for her, followed her anywhere, because I loved her. I believed in her. And I guess I was in love with her, too, until just recently, when…”

She glanced up at him and flushed. What had changed, exactly?

It wasn’t only Hal—not the fact of him, here and warm beside her. But now, as she turned over their conversations, Wren began to wonder why she’d always thought she needed Una so desperately. She had grown so used to Una saving her from herself, she’d come to believe she needed it. But did her feelings truly make her weak? Could someone love her because of them, not in spite of them?

“Until recently,” Wren concluded. “That’s why my position matters to me so much.”

Wren watched him process what she’d said, carefully turning over each word as if it were delicate. Then, once he’d slotted everything into place, he said, “I understand.”

It felt like an absolution.

“Will you finish telling me what you brought up the other day?” she asked quietly. “You said you didn’t believe in the military’s cause anymore. What did you mean?”

As he lay unmoving beside her, Wren thought he might curl back into himself. Pretend to sleep, or conveniently lose his grasp on the Danubian language again. “The Vesrian army was a haven for people who hid their true intentions behind the banner of patriotism. They twisted good intentions into monstrosity and encouraged the cruelest among us.

“I didn’t always want to be a soldier. But when my magic awakened, I was…” He trailed off, searching for the words. “It was an accident, that first time. I can hardly describe what it feels like when it happens. There’s a moment when the connection snaps into place and neither of us can look away. Cold, and then all I know is fear—not my own. It’s horrible.”

“Who…?” She hadn’t meant to let it slip, but she couldn’t take it back now.

“A friend.” Bitterness crept into his voice. There were no words for that kind of horror. Wren could picture it too clearly. Hal, still innocent in boyhood—confusion melting into terror. Had anyone witnessed it? Did anyone help him? “I was devastated. But my father was so proud.”

“What?”