One Girl, A Pack Of Beasts novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: The Bear

"No," Tobiah said.

He said it with his fists shut.

The bear didn't argue.

"Toby," I said. "Sit down."

"He let them call you a poisoner. He stood there."

"I know. I was there too."

Tobiah sat.

I looked at the bear for a long time.

He'd always been the quiet one of my four. He ate whatever I put in front of him and never said it was good.

"Sit," I told him.

He sat on the end of the bench.

The fox tanner pushed the fish across without a word.

Kell didn't move from the fire, but he went still before a strike.

"You're thin," I said.

"I stopped drinking it the morning you drank your tea at the fire." The bear rubbed his huge hands together. "I got better. Every day I don't drink it, I get better."

"So you know what it is."

"I've known since the fire." He looked down at his hands. "I knew before that. I just didn't say."

"Say it now."

He took a long breath.

"The night before you broke the bonds, I went out to the storehouse for wood. Hester was in there with Brannon. They didn't hear me."

"What did she say?"

"She said a few more cups and we'd be sick enough to believe anything." His voice went low and flat. "She said when we were sick enough, you'd be the one who did it."

Tobiah made a sound like he'd been hit.

"And Brannon?" I said.

"Brannon said, 'Just not too much in mine.'"

The fire popped.

"He knew," I said.

"He knew. He laughed." The bear finally looked up at me. "And then she put more in his cup that night anyway. More than any of ours. I saw her do it at the fire, while he was cheering."

So that was why Brannon had coughed blood.

Hester had needed a man who was really dying.

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