(Bardolph POV)
The baby bracelet dug into my palm until blood touched the tiny silver moons, and I welcomed the pain because it felt honest.
The marriage contract lay open beside the journal, mocking every memory I had of choosing Daciana freely beneath the blood moon.
My father knew her name before I did.
My father had planned to bind her to me before she could speak, run, fight, or choose her own fate.
The thought made me sick enough to brace one hand against the cradle he had kept hidden behind his sealed wall.
Farkas stood behind me, reading the final line of the journal with a face that looked carved from old rage.
“If Bardolph fails to bind her willingly, Adolphus must awaken the maid’s daughter and finish what Sassaba began,” he repeated.
Gonzalo cursed under his breath, and
