'I killed their pack leader,' Sevro says when I ask why the wolves follow him. He looks me up and down and flashes me an impish grin from beneath the wolf pelt. 'Don't worry, I wouldn't fit in your skin.'

You have made me give up the hair Father gave me, the eyes Mother left me, the Color I was born to, so I will keep the name they granted me, and you can make it work.

Our lives mean so much more than the frail bodies that carry them.

They call me the Morning Star. That star by which griffin-riders and travelers navigate the wastes in the dark months of winter. The last star that disappears when daylight returns in the spring.

Guardandola, capisco di essermi sbagliato. Non è una distrazione. Non compromette la mia missione. Lei è il centro dell'intera faccenda. Eppure, non posso baciarla. Non adesso, quando devo spezzarle il cuore, per spezzare questo impero. Non sarebbe giusto. Io mi sono innamorato di lei, ma lei si è innamorata delle mie bugie.

I live for the dream that my children will be born free. That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.' 'I live for you,' I say sadly. She kisses my cheek. 'Then you must live for more.

Without me, she would not eat. Without her, I would not live.

They pushed and pushed for so long. They knew I was something dangerous, something different. Sooner or later, they had to know I would snap and come to cut them down. Or perhaps they think I'm still a child. The fools. Alexander was a child when he ruined his first nation.

We grew together, and now are grown. In her eyes, I see my heart. In her breath, I hear my soul. She is my land. She is my kin. My love.