Liora's fortress settled into an uneasy calm over the following weeks, the kind of stillness Jasmine had learned, painfully, not to trust. Corin's fate remained undecided in Council custody, though word had reached them that his cooperation was weighing favorably in his sentencing. Hardin's paternal claim loomed, unscheduled but inevitable, somewhere in the coming season. And Jeanne and Gianna, wherever they were hiding, had gone utterly, unnervingly silent — a silence that unsettled Jasmine far more than any open threat could have.

Jasmine's belly had grown heavier by the day, the twins more insistent in their presence, their voices threading through her thoughts with increasing clarity as the season wore...