Chapter 4

(Adrian's POV)

We did not speak again until well past midnight, in the one place at the Academy neither of us had ever needed to explain ourselves to anyone: the old astronomy tower, disused since the university built its newer observatory across the quadrangle, its brass instruments long since dismantled and its wide stone windowsill worn smooth by two people who had, over six years, made it something like an office for their ongoing conspiracy against their own destinies.

The tower itself dated back to the reign of my great-grandfather, one of those odd architectural leftovers every old institution accumulates,…