“This is going to belong to you one day, when you’re grown,” the king said, and Azure listened intently. It was rare that his father spoke to him this way, and without his sister present at that. He knew that Celeste would be jealous. He would find her when he returned to the clock tower and she would want to know what their father had said about the kingdom, because she wanted to be king more than anything. But the king spoke to his daughter even less than he spoke to his son. “You’ve always known that one day you’ll inherit the kingdom,” King Furlow went on. “But there are parts of it that you have not yet seen, and you’ll need to understand them.” The young prince had, in fact, seen very little of his kingdom. He and his sister were kept apart from the city’s main sections, visiting only for ceremonies and celebrations. He felt that he knew the city only through a sheet of glass. He could see but not touch. “It is not all about parties,”
