Elmir delivers me to my room. Wordlessly, he summons a fire from nothing to crackle over the andirons in the hearth. I sit before it on the bare floor. A blanket is placed gently over my trembling shoulders. He murmurs that I will be safe.
He disappears and returns once more, this time with Hunt cradled in his arms. Elmir lays the wolf at my feet. Hunt whimpers and his usually bright eyes are distant and glassy. But he responds with a soft huff as I reach for his head.
I look back to thank Elmir for bringing me Hunt, for ensuring my wolf’s safety, but he is gone. And I am alone with the wretched sound of a body twisting too far echoing in my ears.
Elmir. Civil, brutal, cold, hot, capable of kindness, but all too easily can reach for cruelty. He had called Midscape a harsh place when I o
