The Seven-Day Severance

Chapter 4 The Final Proof

Rot hung in the air near the border. The great Moon Tree stood ahead of us with black bark and bare branches.

Dead leaves broke apart whenever the wind touched them. The blight had already spread into the soil around its roots.

I knew the cure. I had left the ingredients locked away.

The sickness had begun in the tree and was moving through the pack's land. A month earlier, I would have started treatment before anyone asked. Now Caleb had another healer.

Caleb studied the trunk with his hands on his hips. Beside him, Elara drew her fur-lined cloak around her shoulders.

The damaged tree offended him more than it frightened him. He scraped one black scale of bark loose with his knife and frowned at the stain on the blade.

"Something feels wrong here," she said. "Are you sure we're safe?"

"I'm here, aren't I?" Caleb snapped.

Elara flinched. He put an arm around her and pulled her against his side. "Stay close."

His irritation disappeared as soon as she leaned into him. I had seen that quick correction many times, always followed by some new concession to her.

A branch cracked in the blighted woods to our left.

The rogue came out low and fast, its fur matted against its ribs. The yellow light in its eyes marked Rabid Madness. It sprang at the gap between Elara and me.

Its jaws opened as it crossed the dead roots. There was no warning call from the border patrol and no time for any of us to shift.

Caleb reacted first.

He grabbed Elara, turned his back to the rogue, and drove her out of its path. His shoulder struck my chest.

Both arms closed around her. He used all his weight to carry her clear, leaving me behind him with nowhere to step.

I left the ground. Two cracks sounded inside my body before I hit on my right side. Pain locked my breath in my throat, and the gray sky spun above me.

My shoulder struck first. The rest of me folded over it, and broken ribs ground together beneath my tunic. For several seconds, my hands would not obey me.

The rogue's claws opened Caleb's leather tunic and cut across his back.

He shoved Elara farther behind him, shifted, and met the next lunge. The fight ended when he caught the animal by the neck and broke it.

The rogue raked at his arms until the last moment. Caleb threw the body aside and stood over it, breathing hard through his teeth.

Elara ran to him without a mark on her. "Caleb! You saved me."

She buried her face against his chest and began to sob. Blood from his back spread into her cloak, but she did not look toward me.

He held her until her crying eased. I rolled onto one elbow and tasted blood. When I tried to rise, pain drove me back to the ground.

Caleb watched me fail to stand. His first response was a frown, as though my body had chosen an inconvenient time to stop working.

Caleb came over. "Why are you still down? Get up. You had time to move."

I looked at the hand he offered and left it hanging.

"I had to protect Elara," he said. "She can't fight. You're strong. I thought you could take care of yourself. Stop making a scene."

He said it with the certainty he used for pack orders. My competence had become his excuse to leave me unprotected, while Elara's weakness guaranteed his care.

I pressed along my ribs. At least two were broken.

Caleb withdrew his hand and returned to Elara.

I tore a strip from my tunic and bound my torso. Each pull of the cloth made white spots crowd my vision, but it kept the broken ribs from shifting.

I worked by touch, wrapping below the worst break and tying the knot where I could reach it later. Caleb had seen me do the same for dozens of his warriors.

The man who had once promised to stand between me and danger had used my body to shield someone else. There was nothing left to discuss with him.

When I looked up, he was checking the shallow cuts on Elara's cloak. I pushed to my feet without calling his name.

My right wrist shuddered once. Another section of the mate mark went dull.