It came from nowhere and exactly the right place simultaneously.
We were at the river window — the right one, the one with the best sound, the one he had verified before I arrived. Rowan was asleep in the cradle. The compound at its nighttime register. The bond warm and specific and running its three frequencies.
It had been an ordinary day.
The territory had needed its ordinary attention. Cole had been efficient. Aldis's latest perimeter update had been approved. Soran's eastern route improvements were producing results beyond initial projections. Neva's supply chain restructuring had entered its final phase. The compound had done its ten thousand ordinary things and done them well.
And now the window.
And the river.
And Darius sitting beside me with the specific quality of a man wh
