Chapter 7: Ada MacNeil

Merrick was sitting on the cabin step in the dark when I came back, a mug going cold in his hands.

He stood the moment he saw my face.

"Midwinter," I said. "The pit behind the hall. He wants me at the edge of it before the Moon, and he swears I'll be safe."

"Of course he does."

"Those were his exact words, Merrick. The first time."

He set the mug on the rail very carefully.

"Come inside," he said. "It's time I told you what I know."

Pippa had gone back to the pack kitchen to keep her ears open.

The cabin was ours, with the woodstove ticking and the lamp low.

I sat on the bed. He stayed standing, arms folded across his chest.

"My mother was named Ada MacNeil," he said. "She took the gold light at eighteen, from the same Keeper, in the same circle."

"The Luna's Bond."

"The pack knelt. The Alpha heir claimed her. That was Garth."

I stared at him.

He held my eyes. "Garth Brackwell is my father."

The silver flickered in my chest.

"The grey eyes," I said. "Yours and his and Torin's."

"Everyone in that pack has seen them for twenty years, and nobody says a word."

His voice stayed flat. "My mother lasted five years. Then one winter night at the Cleansing, she walked into the pit, and she didn't walk out."

"She walked in?"

"That's what they told me. I was four."

He swallowed. "I remember the smoke. I remember a woman holding me back by the collar of my coat."

"And your father?"

"His hand was on my head, light as a bird, while I screamed."

I went to him.

He let me put my hands on his folded arms. They were rigid.

"At eighteen, the Keeper held out the silver light to me," he said. "My father took one look at my face."

"And the next morning you were a rogue."

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