Chapter 13: What You Knew

Tobias woke when the message ended, and his hand went still in my hair.

He had heard it. I could tell by how carefully he sat up.

"Don't say it," I said.

"Say what?"

"That I should call him back. That I should be kind about it."

"I wasn't going to."

I got off the cot and pulled on my boots. My legs held me, which surprised me.

"Everybody keeps telling me I'm needed," I said. "My mother, Alexander, Giada. Nobody says what for."

"Nina."

"You know. You've known since the hall."

He said nothing, and that was my answer.

I pushed through the tent flap and walked out into the camp.

It had snowed in the night. The first snow of the year lay thin and blue over the tents and the river rocks, and my breath came out in clouds.

He followed me out. He had not stopped for his jacket.

"Ask me," he said.

"When did you know?"

"The moment the bond broke in that hall." His voice was level. "I was at the back of the line with a coffee."

"And?"

"The air changed. I smelled you, and I smelled the thread running into the man on his knees."

"What thread?"

"The one he'd been pulling on for five years."

I turned around.

"You let me stand in that stairwell crying," I said. "You carried my bag. You watched me say yes to a contract."

"I did."

"You watched me think I was weak."

"I did that too."

The snow squeaked under my boots as I walked back toward him.

"I came here to find out why my wolf never came," I said. "I asked you on the plane. You said you'd like to know why."

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