WREN'S POV
I didn't sleep again.
The study conversation had taken longer than I expected, longer than either of us seemed prepared for, and by the time I finally left his study the candles had burned low and my legs had gone stiff from sitting too rigid, too braced, through every piece of the truth he'd handed me. Some of it I was still turning over hours later, sitting on the edge of my bed with my knees pulled to my chest, watching the window lighten from black to gray. Some of it I wasn't ready to examine yet, not fully, not with the rest of me still raw from everything else this territory had already asked of me in two short days.
I told myself I'd think it through properly once the sun came up. I didn't get the chance.
A knock came at my door not long after dawn, the same message
