Chapter 22: What the Town Saw

Linnet's POV

The first thing I said was, "You howled."

Cassian's whole body jerked.

He pulled back and stared down at me, and his face was a ruin.

His eyes were red, and his lip was split where he'd bitten it.

He looked at me as if he did not believe me.

"You're awake."

"I think so."

"You're breathing."

"I think I am."

"Say something else."

"Your whole shirt is wet," I said. "And you smell like lake."

He made a noise that was half a laugh and half a sob.

Then he put his face in my neck and shook.

I put my arms around him.

They were my own arms, whole and strong, and there was nothing on them.

I turned my wrists over in the light.

Clean skin, pale, and freckled where the sun had been.

I touched my chest, my ribs, my throat.

No branches.

No heat.

Nothing hurt.

I had not been without pain in seven years, and I did not know where to put my hands.

"Mom," I said.

She was already on her knees beside me, holding my face in both hands.

She didn't say a word.

She kissed my forehead, my cheeks, and my hair, over and over.

Then she sat back on her heels and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

"You scared the life out of me, Linnet Ashgrove," she said.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"You don't get to be sorry. You get to eat."

By the time the sun came up over the hills, she had fed the whole shore.

I don't know where the food came from.

The neighbors had gone home in groups and come back with coolers and folding tables.

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