[Location: Morningstar Manor, New York]
Selene exhaled slowly, like she was bracing herself to open a door she'd kept locked for a long time.
"I was eight," she said. "Maybe nine. Hard to tell. My village didn't do birthdays. We did 'still alive this winter' celebrations."
"Charming," I murmured.
"Rural mountain town," she said with a shrug. "Lots of fog. Lots of superstition. Zero therapists."
That tracked.
"I was… odd," Selene continued. "Not in the cute way. In the 'milk curdles when she cries' way. Windows cracked if I had a nightmare. Birds would land on the roof and just… stare at me."
Eris made a soft snuffling sound against my ribs. I carefully shifted a hand to steady her. Grayfia's fingers tightened again, even in sleep.
Selene noticed. Her expression softened for half a second before she looked away.
"My parents thought I was cursed," she went on quietly. "Which, in fairness, was not an unreasonable guess."
"What happened?" I asked.
