The letter from Kathy arrived again, three weeks before the wedding, and this time it carried a request rather than just an apology.
I heard of your wedding even here, it read. Word travels even to a struggling pack. I do not ask to attend. I know that would be too much, and I would not want to bring anything of Blackmoon into your joy. I only wanted to say, from a distance, that I am glad. You deserve every bit of this happiness, sister, more than anyone I have ever known.
Aria read it on the balcony of her chambers, the midsummer evening warm around her, and found tears in her eyes before she had finished.
Kael found her there, and read the letter over her shoulder when she offered it without a word.
"You could invite her," he said carefully. "Just her. Not the pack. Not him."
Aria
