The days after Grayson’s fall passed slowly, but peacefully. There was a quiet that settled over the land a fragile peace, like the calm after a storm, when the world holds its breath before the next gust of wind blows in. Leander remained quieter than I had ever seen him. He was still, contemplative, and more reflective than ever. It wasn’t the brooding silence that often haunted him but a soft kind of stillness. As if, for the first time in his life, he was trying to understand something that had always eluded him.

I stayed close by his side. He needed me, but perhaps I needed him just as...