Natalia’s POV
The great hall was bustling with the sounds of conversation and laughter, the air smelling of roast meat and fresh vegetables. Off in the distance, some of the Bloodmoon warriors had challenged our own to a drinking contest, making Andrei shake his head in disapproval as he watched our warriors stumble and spill wine down their shirts.
For a little while, the world felt almost normal.
If I imagined that my father wasn’t an eighty year old man in the blink of an eye, of course. And if I pretended that, when I looked into Celeste’s eyes across the way, she was still the same young woman I had last seen. Not aged beyond her years by a madwoman who never should have been allowed to become a mother.
“Here you go, Dad,” I said, forcing a smile as I lifted the spoonful of broth
