“I’ve never seen anything the books mention,” I protest.
“Well, it’s not like they want to draw much attention either, and you certainly weren’t using the right perspective.”
“The right perspective?”
“She means you weren’t really looking. You didn’t expect to see something like that, so you simply weren’t paying attention,” Clarissa clarifies.
Resigned to accept that this new world I’ve been born into is far more complex than I imagined, I fall back onto the mattress. I stare at the ceiling for what feels like hours. Clarissa and Naida whisper about things that seem irrelevant to me. A new cook, the fabrics for the next dresses, the latest shade of lipstick that would go well with my skin tone…
“Where did Cassian go?” I ask.
A clear image of his face bathed in sunlight flashes throug
