Lena's POV
Bastian found me in the corridor the following morning.
He was earlier than usual. His expression had the particular quality it wore when he was carrying something he had assessed from multiple angles and was not certain how to deliver without doing damage.
"He did not sleep," he said.
I kept walking. He fell into step beside me. "Damien."
"Yes."
"Not once?"
"I am told not meaningfully." He paused. "He was in his study until the third bell. Working, by the look of it, but Rourke said the papers had not moved."
I thought about that. About the man who sat at his desk in the firelit study with papers in front of him that were not being read.
"He has not done this before," Bastian said. "The not sleeping. He is a man who sleeps as a discipline, the same way he does everythi
