From Ashes to Their Luna novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Alive and Small

My father's room smelled the same, but the bed looked smaller.

He lay propped on three pillows with his mouth open and his breath coming in short pulls.

The white cup sat on the table by his hand, empty now, with the healer's thumbprint on the rim.

I went in alone. Kieran stayed on the landing, and he did not ask to come.

"Nessa," my father said.

"I'm here."

"Margot told you."

"She told the whole meadow."

He shut his eyes. A tear ran into the hair at his temple.

"I loved your mother," he said. "I want you to know that. I loved her more than any of them."

"Then why did you burn her?"

"She was leaving. She'd have taken the land, and sixty wolves would have died." His voice scraped. "I chose the pack."

"You chose the land."

"It's the same thing."

"It was never the same thing."

He opened his eyes and looked at me, and for a moment I saw the man who had signed the treaty at the border and shaken hands with Kieran.

"I kept you alive," he said. "Whatever else I did. I never let them kill you."

I picked up the white cup.

I thought of fourteen years of mornings, and the thyme and tin, and Anson standing at the healer's elbow to be sure.

I opened my fingers over the floor and let it fall.

It broke into four white pieces.

"That's for the tea," I said.

He flinched at the sound and then lay very still.

"Take the seat," he said.

"What?"

"The Alpha's seat. Hollow Creek. I give it to you." His breath rattled. "Sit where I sat. Let it be said I gave it to you with my own mouth, before I went."

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