Chapter 22: Ask Her

Ansel's POV

At midnight I was on the roof run with my hands on the glass wall, not running.

The thread in my chest hummed low and steady.

For the first time in a year I wasn't pushing anything down it.

I had promised her I would not, until she asked, and I had kept the promise for three nights.

She had slept anyway.

I had felt it, her breathing slowing in the Hollow bunk, easy and deep, with no warmth from me at all.

She had never needed it.

She had needed a lock to open, and I had been the one holding the key.

The steel door banged, and Dessa came out with two mugs.

"Bad coffee," she said, handing me one. "It's the tradition."

"Thank you."

"You're standing out here like a man at a graveside."

"She's going home tomorrow."

"I heard." Dessa leaned on the glass beside me.

"You told four hundred wolves you'd wait as long as it takes. Now you're doing the waiting on a roof."

"She asked for the circle at Silver Creek. It's her father's penance. She should be there for it."

"Sure. And after?"

"After, she's free." I turned the mug in my hands.

"The writ is over. Blood Ridge is finished. Nothing holds her to this Tower except the oath she took, and I won't use the oath."

"So you won't ask her to stay."

"I promised myself I would never ask. I ordered her once. I won't do it twice."

Dessa took a long swallow of coffee and made a face.

"Ansel," she said. She almost never used my name. "I'll say this once, and then I'll go back to being insubordinate."

"Say it."

"You wrote a writ that decided everything for a girl and never told her.

"Now you won't ask her anything, because you're scared of deciding for her again."

"That isn't the same."

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