Eli
The council noise doesn’t leave with the wolves. It hangs in the beams like smoke that won’t find a way out. Marek’s voice sticks in my ears, distraction, weakness, compromised, until I want to peel my skin off and leave it on the floor like a snake that’s shed.
I last ten minutes in Ronan’s cabin. Five of those are spent staring at the ceiling, five spent staring at the door. I know he’ll be working late and I’ll have to find my own distraction.
I grab my jacket, pocket a knife, and ghost into the night before my better judgment can grow a spine and stop me.
Outside, the air is temper and ice. The yard has that hollow, late-hour quiet where every sound carries too far. I keep to the fringe, where torchlight frays into darkness, and cut for the south treeline.
I tell myself I’m w
