Chapter 4: Earn It

Neither of us moved.

Arlo did.

He sat bolt upright and said, very loudly, "I didn't see anything."

"Lie down, Arlo," his father said, without taking his eyes off me.

"I didn't see anything and Mama wasn't here."

"Arlo."

He lay down.

He kept one eye open.

Aldric shut the door behind him, very softly, and the hall light was gone.

Now there was only the little wooden moon.

"You," he said.

"Me."

"You're a wolf."

"Apparently."

"You've been a wolf in my house for five years."

"I've been a lot of things in your house for five years. You didn't notice any of them."

He took one step toward me.

My wolf took one step toward him, inside my skin, and I had to plant my bare feet on the rug to stop the rest of me following her.

It was the worst feeling I'd ever had.

It was being pulled by a hook behind my breastbone.

"What did you do to Clover?" he said, low.

"I took the silver out of her."

"No one can do that."

"Then go ahead and feel her forehead."

He looked past me at his daughter, asleep with her rabbit, her cheeks pink and normal.

His shoulders came down an inch.

Then he looked at my hands.

The silver had stopped beading, but my palms were open and raw, and I was holding them away from the bathrobe so I wouldn't bleed on the rockets.

Something crossed his face.

"Let me see."

"No."

"Your hands are..."

"Burned. Twice now. Once for each of your children."

He flinched.

I'd never seen Aldric Langtry flinch.

He came another step.

I backed up and hit the wall beside the door.

He put one hand flat on the wood over my head and leaned in, and I don't think he meant to.

I think his wolf did it.

His breath was moonwine and cedar.

His mouth was an inch from my temple.

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