(JASPER'S POV)
I put the Heart of the First Night inside a cedar box alongside the rest of my collection. The lying compass, the key to a door nobody had managed to find, the stone that sang at noon, and several other treasures that would have given most collectors a nervous breakdown.
Then I washed my bowl, checked that Gerald had enough stew for the night, and went to bed.
The next morning began without incident.
I woke late, as usual, made breakfast, and prepared Gerald's portion. He ate most of it, leaving me with considerably less than I'd intended for myself. I considered this a personal insult but decided against starting an argument with a creature who lived beneath my stairs and could probably swallow me whole.
By noon, everything was still perfectly ordinary.
My heart continued its slow, miserable decline, but I'd grown accustomed to that. The cold inside my chest had become an unpleasant companion, something I could ignore as long as I kept myself occupied.
