Alexander POV
It was silent, the kind of overhead silence you hear when you are trying to read in parchment, and someone in the next room is smacking a sword.
The window was well positioned, in relation to where I was standing, to provide a clear view of the training yard.
And them.
Eliana crouched under the blow, and then her braid whipped against Astrid like a lash in her crotch. They danced in their own way in a movement of liquid flow. Eliana in fire and command, and Astrid in uncertainty and merriment.
It wasn’t a real spar.
It was two warriors playing like sisters.
Eliana laughed, sharp and unguarded. The sound cut clean through the walls around my heart.
I hadn’t heard her laugh like that before.
Not in full.
Not without fear trailing behind it.
I leaned closer to the win
