Chapter 21: The Treeline

Brigid's POV

I woke to the smell of cut pine and a clean, bitter smell under it.

My left side was bound from armpit to hip.

The bed was Kellan's.

He was not in it.

He sat on the floor beside it with his back against the frame and his head tipped back, asleep.

One hand lay curled on the mattress next to mine.

He had a bruise across his cheek and a bandage on his shoulder.

Silver burns ringed his eyes, painted over with Hester's salve.

In his other hand was a length of red cord.

I looked at it for a while.

Then I said, "Floors are for sinners."

His eyes came open.

He was awake in the space of a breath, and on his knees beside the bed, and his hands were all over my face.

"You're warm," he said. "You're warm."

"I'm alive. Stop patting me."

"Three days," he said. "Hester dug the silver out of your bone with a knife and a lamp."

"She wouldn't let me hold you down. She made your father do it."

I went still.

"My father?"

"He came to the door and begged. Hester let him in."

Kellan's voice was rough.

"He held your shoulders for an hour and didn't say a word."

I did not know what to do with that, so I looked away.

"Is it over?"

"The Ironridge Alpha is dead. His wolves haven't gone." He swallowed. "I didn't think you would wake."

"I told you I would."

"You told me you'd kill him yourself."

"I would have." I turned my head on the pillow. "You went blind. I saw the dust. I couldn't stand there."

"You broke the law."

"Do I look sorry?"

He laughed, a cracked sound, and put his forehead against my knuckles.

When he looked up, his eyes were wet.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Rule one."

"I know the rule."

"You said it in the cell, and I told you then, and you've been told since."

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