pte

ia

air-but before I could ans

e last inch of skin on my inner forearm. Then the motion slo

dropping low. "No trace of dark

ed in another step. Those long fingers tightened, and my wrist bones g

what a

ain tore the words out of me, my

he actually

I could retreat even half a step, his arm was already around me, hauling me in, his othe

to accuse him with. He stared down at me, close enough that

al

sounded a

iltered through the wood,

Ou

beyond the door stopped,

ast log collapsing in the fireplace. Deep enough to hear my own heart

t a throat gone pa

said it slowly. "Alpha Adam's younger da

and answers about the switched bride, abou

that Duskwood had swapped out his bride mattered

me," he said. "The power.

he question I

don't

ed on, spilling out what I'd kept c

aught me. No one gave me anything." My mouth twisted. "You won't believe this, but no one ever noticed. In Duskwood, a daughter born without

n't in

thing good would come of it. Wolfless already makes you worthless. Add one impossible thing that can't be e

my eyes

first person

ld on me, but he didn't move away. I watched him bend down and pick the dagger up out of the scatt

t passed bef

years," he said, "lays the whole thing

imed at my heart. "Tell me why I shouldn't believe you're a spy they p

a hundred times, through the long nigh

nswer wa

"The instant this secret gets out, the world will call me a monster. A witch. They'll bind me to a stake and light the fire-and when the fire

up. Empty. I had already ha

ne secret that could get me killed-and

not proof

id no

ar- threat, asset, or dead weight? Firelight flickered across the h

of white roses, palms damp