My fingers tightened around the wooden box until the edges dug painfully into my palms.
Outside my bedroom door, Mara knocked again.
Gentler this time.
"Aria?"
I closed my eyes.
Her voice usually settled me.
Today, it only made the guilt worse.
I'd never hidden anything from Mara before.
Not because she'd demanded honesty.
Because she'd earned it.
She had bandaged my scraped knees after I'd fallen from trees I wasn't supposed to climb.
She had stayed awake through nights when fevers stole my sleep.
She had taught me the names of flowers before she taught me the names of wolves.
When the rest of Beaumont looked through me, Mara had always looked at me.
Really looked.
She had become the closest thing I'd ever known to a mother.
And now...
I was keeping my first real secret f
