Chapter 20. Little Hawk

June's POV

I took the letter to the top of the gate tower and read it alone.

Ronan let me go. He didn't follow. He didn't send anyone after me. He just handed me the soft old paper and said, "I'll be in the workroom," and went back to his father's box.

The tower was cold and windy and empty except for one bored sentry, who took one look at my face and found somewhere else to be.

I sat down with my back against the stone and unfolded the letter.

Your friend, Cormac Rowe.

His handwriting.

I'd forgotten it. I'd forgotten so much. Eleven years of greyroot had blurred everything before the river into a soft gray fog, the way a dream fades when you try to hold it. My mother's singing. The smell of my father's pipe. The sound of their voices through my bedroom wall at night, low and laughing.

But I knew this handwriting.

He'd written notes and hidden them in my bo