Chapter 134

Aria's POV

September arrived and Kira started her third year of school.

She marked it differently than the first two years. No standing outside the gate on the evening before. No walk to look at the building. She woke on the first morning and dressed with her usual care and came downstairs and had breakfast and went to school.

On the way, about halfway there, she said: "I don't need to look at it from outside anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because I know what's inside." She walked with the settled composure of someone who had crossed a threshold so thoroughly that the threshold was no longer visible. "The first...