Two days later,

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The great hall of Blackwood Villa had never looked like this.

Silas had once complained that hanging so much as a sprig of wildflower was "unnecessary frippery," but today every beam was strung with ivy and glowing silver lanterns. Long tables groaned with roasted game, honey cakes, crystal bowls of summer berries, and casks of spiced mead that steamed even in the warm evening air. The windows stood wide open, letting in the scent of clover and night-blooming jasmine, and somewhere out in the courtyard musicians played a light, lilting tune no one had ever heard before.

Lady Selene - Aria’s godmother, Julian’s mother, the woman...