Grace
Grace didn’t sleep that night.
She lay awake in her narrow bed, her body rigid beneath the quilt, Kaleb’s words replaying over and over until they were carved into her bones.
Once you know, there’s no going back.
The sentence echoed like a drumbeat in her mind, relentless and unforgiving. She stared at the ceiling, watching the shadows shift as the moon crawled across the sky. Her breath came in shallow bursts, her thoughts tangled in a web of fear and curiosity.
She tried to tell herself it was nonsense. That Kaleb was just trying to scare her, to keep her away. Maybe he didn’t like outsiders. Maybe he wanted her to pack up, leave Longtooth, and disappear back into the world she had escaped.
But even as she whispered those excuses in the dark, she knew better.
There was truth
