Sera found the dress in the back of the closet, where it had been for longer than she wanted to calculate — the one she'd worn to the wedding on the tributary bank, kept not out of sentimentality exactly, more because she'd never found a reason to get rid of it and some part of her had known, without admitting it, that she'd want it again someday.
Darius didn't know what tonight was. Not the date, not the reason — Sera had been deliberately vague for a week, telling him only to be free after Rowan's bedtime, no explanation given, which had produced in him a kind of low-grade suspicious delight that he'd been failing to hide all week.
She'd planned this for a month. Luna had helped with the logistics, Kira had taken Rowan's sleepover with Aldis and Pip off the table entirely so there'd be
