None of it was sentiment.

All of it was a grandmother building a fortress around the one grandchild she trusted to guard the gate, knowing she herself would not live to see the siege.

You’ll know when it’s time, she had said.

And she had been right, as she was right about almost everything, because she had spent a lifetime paying attention in a family that never once returned the favor.

Chapter 5 — The Ambush

Finn began to fuss, stirring against her.