"A girl." Sally's voice had gone very soft. "Alex. She's a girl."
Alex fell back against Naga's coils, his whole body shaking, and looked.
She was small—small but not fragile—and she was furious about everything, a tiny baby lion with cream-white soft furs, her muzzle scrunched tight, her nose twitching once in a while. Her tiny little paws clawing and relaxing as her ears flick back and forth along with her surrounding. And when she finally opened her eyes, blinking against the unfamiliar light, the color of them made every person in the alcove go quiet.
One eye was the deep, blue of the sea before a gale. The other was golden—the particular burning gold of Leo's eyes when he was most himself, most present, most alive.
Two different colors. One for each world she carried.
Alex made a sound he couldn't have named. His arms reached, and Sally understood, and placed her there.
