That Saturday Kael was at a council meeting. The house was quiet, and I'd run out of excuses not to be useful.
I tidied his study. As I bent to wipe the desk, my elbow knocked something underneath,a tiny raised square I hadn't noticed before. There was a soft click, and a panel slid open in the side of the desk.
Inside lay a journal. The leather cover was worn pale at the corners.
I should not have taken it out. I took it out.
I opened it to a random page.
May 20, 2017. I sat on the balcony to catch the air. A girl in a blue dress flung herself at me. She wrapped her arms around my legs and cried for thirty solid minutes. She kept telling me she'd been badly hurt and she was still alive and I wasn't allowed to die. Her wrists were burned. She cried harder than I did. I forgot, for hal
