They Called My Father a Traitor, So I Learned Every Secret They Buried novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Permission Neither of Them Names

I took Kestrel's travel knife from his belt and laid it across the open clinic door before he could step into the snow.

He stopped with one boot over the threshold. Cold air entered around him, carrying the sharp smell of pine and distant iron.

'Move,' he said.

'No.'

His gaze lowered to the knife, then returned to me. Pain had thinned the color in his face, but it had not weakened his attention.

'You have placed a blade between us,' he said. 'That seems an unnecessarily theatrical answer to a question you have not asked.'

'You are leaving.'

'I am attempting to.'

'Without your coat fastened. With a wound that opened twice today. Through a pass watched by men who were ordered to call you an enemy Alpha.'

He glanced toward the dark beyond the door. Snow had covered the steps. It had not covered the blood he had left there earlier.

'You have made an excellent list of reasons for me to stay,' he said. 'You have not given me one.'

That was the point. He was waiting for me to order him back.

I had left the door unbarred. I had placed the knife where he could see it. The route from the watchtower to the lower ravine was clear in my mind, along with the patrol changes, the blind turn beneath the eastern shelf, and the checkpoint that would not be manned until dawn.

I could have hidden the route. I could have lied about the snow.

Instead, I stepped aside from the doorway.

'The ravine runs east for half a mile before it drops under the old quarry road. There is a patrol post above the road. Two wolves. One limps on the left. The other drinks from a flask before he checks the pass.'

Kestrel studied me.

'You have planned my escape.'

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'Because if I told you to stay, you would wonder whether I meant it or needed another body between my mother and Corvin.'

His face changed very little. I watched the small tightening beside his mouth instead.

'And what conclusion did you hope to draw from my leaving?'

'Whether you see me as someone to protect, or someone you can work beside.'

'You have made the distinction sound like a test.'

'It is a test.'

He looked past me at the clinic. The lamp burned low beside the basin. My medical text lay open on the table, its blank pages spread wide enough that the custody leaf showed only as a narrow pale edge beneath them.

I had put it there because Corvin's clerks searched for hidden compartments first. They trusted blank pages. They distrusted hollowed books. That was why I had given the evidence the appearance of being easier to steal than it was.

Kestrel noticed the book. He noticed everything when he was tired.

'You are going to keep working from this place,' he said.

'Yes.'

'Even after Corvin took your home and assigned your mother to a kennel block?'

'Especially after that.'

'You could petition the High Council from a safer settlement.'

'The High Council is beyond the mountains. My mother needs a travel scrip that Corvin can revoke. I need the original records that pass through this border. The wolves need someone who will read what is written before they sign it.'

← Chapter 6 · All chapters · Chapter 8 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend