"I know," he said.

His answer took my breath away, though I had somewhat expected it. If my mother was alive, he would be the one person who knew her whereabouts.

Where else could she be, if not with him? I met his eyes and asked,

"Where is she? Where is Mother?"

I needed to know, and not just out of a simple desire to see her. I was beginning to understand that my mother was connected to everything that had happened to me. From the beast within me to the so-called Second Calamity, to the name she bore as …