THIRTY
FAUSTIA
"When I was thirteen, I did what no one else had done in decades. I returned from my Reckoning after only three days, and with two hearts in my satchel," Garret recounted, playing with the end of Violet's plaited hair. "My commander accompanied me home after the other boys returned. And all my father had to say to me was, 'well done,' before dismissing me and my commander. As if I were a servant and not his son."
Garret huffed, dropping her hair to scrub at his jaw.
"It was so obvious, his preference for my brothers," he told her with a grunt, describing his brothers' visits to brothels and gambling houses, something he never deigned to do himself. "They were endlessly begging for more funds to support their habits. Weak and spoiled, all of them."
"When I graduated, I r
