Chapter 5: The Last Bus

Gideon did not come back to bed that night.

At first light I took my coat and walked to the pack cemetery.

I had come to say goodbye to my grandmother before the bus.

There was already someone at her grave.

Delaney knelt in the wet grass in a white dress, laying white lilies against the stone.

She had not heard me. I stopped behind a cedar and stayed there.

"Thank you," she said softly to the stone. "For everything you did for us. Truly."

Her voice was sweet. It was too sweet, the voice she used on Gideon.

"Rest easy, healer. I'll look after everything now. Everyone you left behind."

She patted the top of the stone twice, gently, and smiled down at it.

Then she stood and brushed off her knees.

She saw me and smiled at once, without a flicker.

"Luna! I come every week. Someone ought to."

"That's kind of you."

"It's the least I can do." She touched my sleeve. "Gideon was with me till dawn, you know. The nightmares are so bad lately."

"I'm sure they are."

"I wish I could stop needing him. I'm trying."

She said it with her head tilted, her eyes huge and wet.

I had once believed that look.

"Take care of him today," I said.

Her face flickered, just barely. She'd expected a fight.

"I will," she said, and went down the path with her lilies gone and her hands empty.

I waited until she was out of sight.

Then I knelt where she had knelt and put my palm on the cold stone.

"I'm leaving, Grandma," I said. "I'm taking your great-grandchild with me."

The lilies smelled too strong. I moved them to the side.

I told her about the tea. I told her about the Release.

The wind moved in the cedars.

"I'll find out why you always washed your hands," I said, without knowing where the words came from.

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