NINETEEN
The town held a feast in our honor that night—and they had more than delivered.
They cooked and displayed every kind of finned and shelled fish. Jaunty music filled the streets as people danced and sang along. Jaunty music and laughter filled the air, infusing me with its lightness, even from my seat on the fringes of the gathering. My foot tapped along to the beat, smiling while watching Zinnia twirl through a line as she danced.
Lysander was milling about with Tyrus and Luca, busy courting recruits and answering endless questions.
My mind drifted to Violet's continued absence once more. Lysander dispatched men to find her and learn what the townsfolk might know. But so far, all we'd learned was that she had ridden off with the Faustian man to the camp they kept a few miles o
