He Signed the Exile Order, So I Took the Wards North novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Untouchable

The envoy brought the release roll to the tower, because I would not stand in the yard another minute.

It was a long scroll of Highwater's exiles, in a clerk's cramped hand, with a line at the bottom for my name.

"Sign where your term ends," the envoy said. "The Warden has already put his seal."

I looked for the place.

Four lines above it, the clerk had listed the deaths of that winter's exiles, and I read the entries the way you read anything when your hands are cold.

Then I read one of them twice.

Died at Highwater Hold, nine winters past. The old Alpha of Greyfell, exiled by the Concord. Died in the Warden's infirmary. Witnessed and sealed by Ronan Hask.

The envoy was still talking.

I did not hear him.

For fifteen years I had written to every hold in the north, and every letter had come back unanswered.

I had told myself he was alive somewhere, too proud to write.

I put the scroll down very carefully on the table.

"Leave us," I said.

The envoy looked at my face and left.

Ronan stood by the window with his back to the room.

He had known what I would read.

He had put the roll in front of me, and he had let me find it alone.

"Nine winters," I said.

"Catriona."

"He died in your infirmary. Under your seal. And you let me sleep in the room beside yours."

"I wanted to tell you."

"You wanted to."

I crossed the room and shoved him in the chest with both hands.

He let me.

I shoved him again, and he took a step back and hit the wall.

"You read my father's name in the ledgers," I said. "You told me that, and I thanked you for it."

"I know."

"You sat in a room while he died and you never rode south. You never sent a line. Nine years, Ronan."

"I know what I owe you."

"You owe me nothing. You're the Warden. You owe the Concord."

"Catriona."

"Is that why I'm free?" My voice cracked. "Is that why you signed the roll? So the debt goes away?"

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