KATHERINE
The car slowed as we approached the academy, and my eyes were already scanning the grounds. I looked for Alex without making it obvious, checking the walkway, the entrance, the side road where students sometimes cut through. I didn’t see him, and that didn’t relax me the way it should have.
I stepped out and adjusted my bag, keeping my posture easy, my face neutral. I’d been careful in the palace, quiet, subdued, letting them think the backlash had broken me. Stephen needed to believe that. Everyone did. If they thought I was done planning, they’d stop watching so closely.
The truth was, I’d done more thinking in the last day than I had in weeks.
The rebels weren’t the way forward.
I’d wanted them to be, because they were loud and angry and visible, and it felt good to imagi
