I stood at the door for a long time after I found them, the cold working its way up through my socks, the lilies stark and impossible against the snow. Behind me, I heard Kairo come down the hallway, his footsteps slower than usual.
"Talia."
"Someone knew my mother." I didn't turn around. "These were her favorite flowers. White lilies. She loved them. I saw it in one of Mara's letters." I tried to make sense out of it. "And now they're sitting on my porch step with no footprints leading to them and no footprints leading away."
His silence lasted for some time.
I finally turned to look at him. He hadn't slept either — I could see it in the same tightness around his eyes that I felt behind my own.
"Someone knows I'm here," I said. "Someone who knew her. Who knows what she loved. That's
