The clearing remained silent.
The old parchment trembled in my hands as the night wind whispered through the pines. My mother's handwriting covered the brittle page, elegant and familiar, but the center of the contract had been violently torn away.
One name.
Someone had removed exactly one name.
I looked at Kael.
He wasn't looking at me.
His golden eyes remained fixed on the missing section of the document, his jaw clenched so tightly I thought it might crack.
"What aren't you telling me?" I asked quietly.
His gaze finally lifted.
"I don't know who the groom was."
The crescent on my palm remained still.
Truth.
"But..." I whispered.
He exhaled slowly.
"I know what this contract means."
Again, my mark stayed quiet.
Another truth.
I hated that almost more than a lie.
"Then t
