Helio’s POV
“You’re kind of an ass, you know that, right?” Jack said without preamble as we walked out into the snow-speckled sunlight.
Sparkly flakes fell from the sky, turning into little bursts of steam as they fell over me. I was worked up, I guessed, if I was putting off that much heat.
I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I watched as two children, likely a servant’s, chased each other around the frosted trees. One had a doll. One had a teddy bear. Neither toy was stitched together from rags. At the Azer castle, children were seen and not heard. Actually, not even seen, either. If our servants had children, I wasn’t aware of it. But looking at these children play reminded me that surely they must exist.
The sunlight touched every frozen surface, from the crunching ground to the t
