The magic rooted deep in Calandra’s land tinged our irises at birth with those starbursts, linking us forever to a place. No matter where we lived, where we moved, that one color was unchanging. Every Quentin had an amber starburst. Every Quentin except me. My eyes were solid gold. Not a starburst in sight. When I was a child, I used to ask Father why I was different. After he’d ignored the question countless times, I’d stopped trying to understand. When Mae and I were girls, when the time had come for him to choose the Sparrow and he’d picked her instead of me, even though I was his eldest
...more
