torch swinging, and the beam cut across

t whoever that was walk

ds." I picked up her wrench from the floor. The handle was wrapped in electrical tape gone

h from me, sniffed the tape, and his

n smell

ter. Not a MacRae scent." He handed the w

ngth of the main pipe with his torch held low, and he stopped where the rust had

e when I did th

. The tide dropp

pe." He stood and wiped his thumb on h

nd a bad attitude and she was gone

on her. There's a

ed when I grabbed her. I put my hand in my pocket beside the

Alpha wants a report by morning. I'll write it. You go home, and when you c

I followed, and on the third st

nd climbed to the wrist. I closed that hand around the rail an

asd

min

It had been steady for three days. The first time was six weeks ago, in the shower, and I had blamed the cold water. The second time was a

e had opinions about everything, about the way Magnus chewed his food, about the smell of new paint in the corridors, about every

ht. Tonight

reached the gatehouse the wind had com

anding on

hair loose now and blowing across her face. The moon was behind the clouds, and the se

my sides, and when I reached the seawall she turned her head and watched

e back,"

It will hold until Thursday, maybe Friday, and then it won't. Yo

to the pack house and e

ould that go well fo

espec

e wind pulled her hair back, and I could see the small scar in

was trembling at my side, an

cold,"

st tremor? Because I have seen this before, and it does not get better on its own. The curse in y

standing on a seawall in the middle of

pulled her sleeve back, and there on her forearm, pale in the moonlight, was a mark like a crescent moon. "My name is Eilidh. I am not a rogue, whatever your Beta smells. I c

of her straight into my lungs, copper and rain and crushed fern

same one, and mine has been burning since I touched you, and I do not believe in coincidences." She

ough me like curre

face, the way her eyes lost their

ursday with a tool that can reach the junction. Do not le

. "Not your name. Who

She looked at it, then at me

d why your father's name is on a ledger in the Council archive. Ask her t

awall into the mist, an

and into my bones. Then I went back to the gatehouse

the fourth ring.

sk you something, and I nee

clink of a kettle set down on a stove, and when she spoke again

cottage. Use the back path, not the road. And

oked at

" she said,