KATHERINE
I knew I should probably go back to Stephen’s room and tell him about the message, but the wound of losing my family was still wide open, and I needed answers that he might never give me. I slipped past the sleeping guards in the lower hall, moving as quietly as I could until I reached the outer gate and disappeared into the tree line. The night air was biting, and the forest was thick with a heavy fog that made everything look like a blurry nightmare, but I kept moving toward the coordinates of the old mill. My mind was a mess of doubt, thinking about the way Stephen had looked at me earlier and the way he had saved those wolves, but the pull of the truth was stronger than the heat he had stirred in my blood.
I reached the clearing where the old mill sat, and the building loo
