Page 2

Chapter One

Beware the deep, dark woods. Men have been lost within the birch and poplar branches. But should a woman venture forth, the rowan and ash will show her the way. Their boughs will bend and their leaves will murmur to the twilight king... his bride has come.

—Anon., Tales from the Twilight Court

A few hours earlier

“He’s not my favorite, Kate. Stop acting like a child and be more respectful to your mother.”

“ Step mother,” Kate Winslow corrected her father as she desperately tried to control her temper. The only time her stepmother ever called herself Kate’s mother was when she was trying to win an argument or shame Kate into something in front of her father.

Robert Winslow glared at her from across the kitchen island, arms crossed.

Her stepmother, Sandra, stood beside him, lips pinched in a sour frown.

She continued to cut a bunch of carrots into small chunks for the Crock-Pot for tomorrow.

Sandra’s brown eyes met Kate’s, a dark glint in them, warning Kate of the poison she was about to spread in Robert’s ear.

“I’m not a child!” Kate snapped. “I’m in college, for God’s sake. Stop treating me like some spoiled brat.” She couldn’t understand why her father believed anything Sandra said about her. It was all so clearly untrue.

“Then perhaps you shouldn’t act like one, Katherine,” Sandra said as she set her knife down. “Caden doesn’t act like this, and he’s eleven.”

Caden. Her half brother. The son Sandra had given Kate’s father.

The perfectly adorable kid whom Kate loved, but Sandra used him as a wedge to drive Kate even farther away from her father.

And now that she’d officially moved into the dorms two hours away, that emotional distance between them had only intensified.

She hadn’t known how unhappy she’d been these last few years until she’d seen how other people on campus behaved with their families.

Many had blended families like hers, but none seemed as miserable as she was.

She almost hadn’t come home for Christmas.

When her roommates had asked her about it, she’d felt a terrible sense of dread at the thought of having to face Sandra again.

And worse, she would disappoint her father just by being here, just like she was now, even though all she did was speak the truth.

Kate had no value to Sandra, to the woman who could have been a second mother to her, if only she had wanted Kate just a little.

But she never had. From the first day she’d met Kate, Sandra had made it clear that Kate was only in the way.

Unwanted. Even at eighteen, when she was moving on with her life, it still hurt.

Tears stung Kate’s eyes. She wasn’t a child.

She was earning a business degree and studying French.

She had talents, skills, and intelligence.

She had earned a full academic scholarship, which had made her father proud until Sandra said it was only to be expected given the private schools they had sent her to.

As if Kate’s grades had been purchased and her years of hard work meant nothing.

Before Kate’s mother, Amber, had died, she’d told Kate that a child was born into the world with love, that they didn’t need to earn it.

But her mother had been wrong. Sandra had made it clear love had to be earned, and Kate could never do enough to please her.

Somehow, that wounded Kate beyond words, knowing that her mother’s wonderful ideas about the world weren’t true.

How can she make me cry all the time? It’s like she knows just what to say to make me look like a child.

“You know,” her father said, his tone firm but gentle, “I think it’s time you went to see someone about your issues.”

Kate gripped the edge of the white granite countertop.

“My issues ? The only issue I have is being a part of this family.” The moment she said the words, she regretted them, but she’d be damned if she took them back.

A look of satisfaction lurked behind the shocked expression on Sandra’s face.

A black pit formed in Kate’s stomach. She’d played right into Sandra’s trap. Again .

“Kate,” her father warned. “This is why you need therapy. You need to understand how you fit into this family. Not everything is about you. Your mother taught you better than that.”

Your mother... Those two words cut Kate’s heart like a knife.

“But I don’t fit,” she said, almost in a whisper. She wanted to leave, but her body was frozen to the spot, unable to move. “That’s what she wants.” Kate glanced at her stepmother. “Isn’t it? Driving me away so you get everything?”

Sandra’s eyes lit up. “See, Robert? She just wants her inheritance. This little stunt is about money.”

The evil woman had turned her own words against her. A metallic taste filled Kate’s mouth. She swallowed, but her throat felt like it was coated in broken glass.

“That’s it. I’m done.” Kate turned to leave.

“Kate, come back. We aren’t done talking about this,” her father said.

I am done, she thought bitterly. Done with everything.

She stormed through the house, stopping only when she reached the stairs by the front door.

Christmas lights covered the bushes outside, and a tall Christmas tree filled the entryway with its lushly decorated greenery.

It was beautiful, but none of this was real.

She wanted the old Christmas back. She wanted to have her mother’s hand-sewn stockings on the fireplace mantel and randomly collected ornaments that carried special stories for their family.

Sandra had stored them in the attic and replaced Kate’s childhood with glitzy store-bought stockings that held no Christmas memories.

Christmas music drifted from the kitchen again. It had been paused when Kate interrupted them. Somewhere along the way, this had ceased to be Kate’s world. Sandra had conquered it and controlled it, just like everything else in Kate’s life.

This wasn’t home. Home wasn’t anywhere anymore. Her once beautiful world was now a frozen palace of ice in a land far out of her reach.

Kate stared at the family portrait above the fireplace.

It held only her father, Sandra, and Caden.

Sandra had scheduled the photo shoot on a day when Kate had final exams in high school, and she hadn’t been able to sit for the portrait.

Sandra was doing everything she could to push Kate away from her father.

She kept pitting Kate against Caden, and Kate despised that even more.

Caden was a sweet kid. She loved him, but seeing how her father glowed when he looked at his son compared to how he looked at her. ..

She shivered as a fresh layer of ice frosted her heart.

Stop thinking about what should be. Think about what is.

That was what she had to do. Her mother was dead. Her father had moved on. It was stupid for Kate to cling to her past and pathetic for her to wish for an impossible future.

Rather than go up to her room, Kate grabbed her purse from the side table and headed for the front door.

She had to get out of here. She had no idea where she’d go.

She only knew she needed to find a place where she could breathe and think.

Something had to change in her life. She just had to figure out how to move forward.

“Kate?” Caden’s voice halted her as she put her hand on the doorknob.

The little boy stood at the top of the stairs, wearing buffalo plaid red-and-black pajamas. His blond hair was a mess, and his blue eyes were wide with worry.

“Yeah?” she said softly, not wanting Sandra or her father to hear.

“You really think Mom has favorites?” He said Mom so innocently, as if he didn’t understand that Sandra didn’t want to be Kate’s mother.

That’s what hurt Kate more than anything.

That she felt so unwanted when she would have been glad to have had a second mom.

When her father had first gotten remarried, Kate had been open to the idea of a new mom.

But from the moment she met Sandra, it had been clear the woman had no desire to have Kate in her life.

“I...” She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Don’t worry about what I said. I’m just mad.” She could tell that he heard the lie upon her lips.

Caden came down a few steps on the stairs. “You’re leaving? But tomorrow’s Christmas.”

“Then you should go back to bed so Santa will come tonight. He can’t visit if you’re awake. I promise I’ll come back.” He must have heard the uncertainty in her voice and came down the rest of the way.

“Kate, I’m eleven. I know Santa isn’t real,” Caden said politely.

“You promise to come back?” He put a hand on her arm.

“Please? You’re my sister.” His blue eyes were full of a pleading that tore at Kate’s heart.

She really loved her little brother, but so much of Sandra’s cruelty involved him, and it created a bleak ache in her chest whenever she was around the boy.

“Promise me,” he said again, his fingers tightening on the sleeve of her sweater. He could tell she didn’t want to come back, that this place was a dark abyss of pain for her.

Her throat tightened. “Okay, I’ll be back tomorrow. I promise.”

Caden released her arm as she opened the door. Rain was coming down in thick torrents, matching her grim view of her future with her family. Caden gave her a small, helpless wave as she closed the door. She rushed to her car in the driveway, shielding her face with one arm.

The rain moved across the lawn and driveway in waves, the drops hitting the ground so hard they formed a layer of mist.

She wrenched open the driver’s side door and threw herself in, half soaked by the time she slammed the door shut.

Kate started the engine but sat in the driveway for a few minutes, watching her headlights light up the garage door. She rested her head on the steering wheel and closed her eyes, fighting off more tears.

“What the hell am I doing?”