ia'

the cart with my mother's trunk, loo

e said my name. I had imagined this moment a thousand times, and I had always imagined hatred. What I felt inste

t me. He looked at th

ve

ed at me once since the bathroom, and

orward. And that w

pe

eyes red, shawl thin against the dawn, a s

we would leave s

aid. "And I have been here since th

but Piper was faster. She shoved the bundl

way out," she said, fast and

, a knife, and something else-some

pen that one until you're alone.

ip

ce cracked, then steadied. "Listen. Servants hear things. L

oming closer. S

." Her eyes flicked to Kaelen's back. "They say when a Shadowfang Alpha finally claims his

I could think of was a strangled sound in a

a week. He came back bleeding-claw marks, but no wolf in Shadowfang could

shoulder. She shook it off,

out what yo

hed. The cart w

d after me, smaller an

d, and the gate of Cres

list behind my teeth. No

n the road," he said, more to the horses than to us. "Camp tonight,

ding up beside the cart. "It

after dark," Silas said. His eyes

far enough away, I

I set aside. The wrapped

med it b

rong. I looked at the road. I looked

yself to l

an and a man. And what they were-

rooms and empty plates, and no one-no one-had

and shoved it into the deepest fold of my shaw

in her crooked h

bite you at th

ped br

t

wolf-if Piper was right-had been

er and did not look at

. I answered him with silence both times, still burning from

heard it the way a hunted thing hears its own noise. The charm had cost itself something las

st once. His hands tightened on t

me back to me, fl

urtain. Let

ne. So I was too much. So even my presence in

rough the curtain carried my scent away from him, and his wolf had

iring ou

and it answered-warm, with that low pulse like someth

ticed something I

rifted to Kaelen's b

not touch it again. I did no

on one line in crooked handwriting, and I did not look at Kaelen, and he did not look at me,

afternoon, C

, and now he did not slow when he rea

spoke low. I should not hav

e road ahead.

turn his head

went quieter. "Not wolf.

t felt

hind us since

before

Cresswood. Since before dawn, something

One thought surface

eparture up because of wha

ad done it fo