From Broke Technician to Luna novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Long Night

Tiernan's POV

The stone step outside her door was cold, and I sat on it anyway.

She had been given the blue room at the end of the east hall.

It was the room my mother used to sleep in when she was ill.

Stevie had walked in without looking at me, and the door had shut, and I had heard the lock turn.

That was two hours ago.

I didn't try the handle.

I could feel her through the bond, a small hot knot of grief and fury, and I could not tell her I was sorry any better than I already had.

Footsteps came down the hall, heavy and unhurried.

Dane sat on the step beside me and put a bottle of water between us.

"Drink that," he said.

"I'm fine."

"You haven't had water since yesterday."

I drank half of it to make him stop.

He studied the closed door.

"She told the whole pack what you did," he said. "In front of Sonja."

"I know."

"You could've lied. You could've said Sonja did it all and you were a kid."

"I was a kid. I wasn't one at eighteen."

Dane let out a breath.

"The old man by the trees came to find me," he said. "His name doesn't matter. He said he voted no."

"That's what they all say now."

"He said he voted no in a room with eight people, and he can name seven of them." Dane lowered his voice. "He says he'll say so in front of the pack, if someone makes it safe."

I looked at him.

"That's the first useful thing anyone's said in nineteen years," I said.

"It is. But it's a vote, Tiernan. Sonja's champion is a different problem."

"Who is it?"

"The one she kept in the kennels. Eleven years in the arena, and the last two men who fought him didn't walk out." He stared at his hands. "I'd fight him for you. I'd lose."

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