Mara woke to the smell of herbs.
She opened her eyes.
A wooden ceiling hung above her.
She tried to move.
Pain shot through her ribs.
"Don't."
A man's voice came from beside the bed.
Mara turned.
A young man was sitting near the window.
He looked to be around thirty.
Dark hair.
Tired eyes.
A simple brown coat.
He was grinding herbs with a stone bowl.
"Where am I?"
"My home."
"Who are you?"
"Eli."
Mara tried to sit up.
"Why am I here?"
"I found you beside the eastern road."
Mara remembered the village.
Her eyes widened.
"Rook."
Eli frowned.
"Who's Rook?"
Mara didn't answer.
She tried to stand.
Eli caught her before she fell.
"You need to rest."
"I can't."
"You nearly died."
"My son—"
Eli paused.
"Your son?"
Mara looked away.
"I have to find him."
"You were alone when I found you."
Mara's face crumpled.
"He'll come looking for me."
Eli didn't understand.
But he could see that whatever she had lost mattered more than her own pain.
So he stayed.
For days, Eli treated her wounds.
He brought her water.
He cooked for her.
He never asked questions she wasn't ready to answer.
Slowly, Mara recovered.
Then one morning, Eli returned home to find the door open.
"Mara?"
No answer.
He searched every room.
Her blanket was on the floor.
The window stood open.
There were footprints outside.
Eli's stomach dropped.
Someone had taken her.
Meanwhile, Mara woke inside a locked room.
A woman she had never met stood beside the bed.
"You'll marry my brother."
Mara stared at her.
"No."
The woman smiled.
"You don't have a choice."
"I said no."
The door opened.
Calder Voss stepped inside.
Mara's blood turned cold.
Gideon's son.
Calder had escaped Bellweather before the fire.
He stared at Mara.
"You destroyed my family."
Mara looked at him.
"Your father did that."
Calder's face hardened.
"You'll become my wife."
"No."
He grabbed the chair beside her and threw it against the wall.
Mara didn't flinch.
"You can lock me up."
She stared directly into his eyes.
"But you can't make me love you."
Calder smiled coldly.
"Then I'll make you useful."
He walked out.
The lock clicked.
Mara sat alone.
Then she noticed something scratched into the wooden wall.
A symbol.
Three curved lines forming a circle.
She recognized it.
It was the same symbol that had appeared on Rook's blanket the night he was born.
Mara touched it.
Her breathing stopped.
"Rook..."
Someone else had known about her child long before the villagers did.
And suddenly Mara understood.
Her son had never been the only secret.