“Surprise!” The crystalline lights switch on, revealing the faces of everyone I hold dear. My mother and father both stand there, as do Eliya and the rest of my extended family. All of them are crowded into The Violet Tree’s front room. Aether dust sprinkles over me. I’m so astonished I don’t look to see who it comes from. “I . . . I thought no one wanted to spend my birthday with me.”
Still think all of them are dicks about how they handled this but wtv
