37. What If I Stayed?
Norman
The moon rose higher, casting a pale silver net across the trees outside the castle. I still stood in the war room long after Salt had left, staring into the dying fire as if it might burn away the knot in my chest.
The idea of a cure, of a White Wolf out there in some forgotten part of the world, lingered in my mind like a dangerous drug. I hated it. Hated the hope of it. Hope was cruel. Hope made me believe in birthdays I wouldn’t reach, lullabies I wouldn’t hear, and names I would never get to teach my children to write.
I had trained myself to expect nothing. To endure everything. That had always been my way.
But Raven changed that. She was like the glitch in the matrix and she toppled everything I thought I believed in.
I didn’t know when it had sta
