Kael was still staring at the words when I finally found my voice again.
"Who is she?"
"I don't know anymore." He folded the scrap of parchment once, carefully, and tucked it inside his coat as though putting it out of sight might put it out of mind. It didn't. I could see that much on his face.
I didn't believe him. Not entirely. But I recognized, too, that whatever he was hiding wasn't mine to demand yet, not standing in a corridor still smoking from a battle we'd barely survived.
The walk back through the palace showed me exactly what that battle had cost.
Burned banners hung in shreds from the walls. Guards lay where they'd fallen, some still being carried away by wolves too exhausted to grieve properly yet. Entire sections of the outer wall had collapsed into rubble, and the smel
