The Bunny in the Fox's Palm novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Go Free

I said the word at noon, in the Council hall, in front of everyone.

The foxes filled the benches in their long coats.

The Hollow filled the back, bakers and laundresses and the fish seller, standing in their work aprons because nobody had told them they couldn't.

Agnes stood among them with her braid pinned up.

Soren stood on the open floor in his dark coat, with his bandaged thumb and his shoulders squared.

"You don't have to do this here," I said, low.

"I want them to see."

"What if it goes wrong?"

"Then they'll see that too."

I looked at him for a long moment.

I had thought I'd be afraid, and I was, but not of him.

I took his hand, the bitten one, and held it in both of mine.

"Go free, Soren MacMahon," I said.

I meant it with every bone in my body.

I felt the string between us, the old tight line that had held since the dais, go slack.

It did not snap.

It unwound.

Soren drew a long breath.

The hall waited for the yellow in his eyes.

It did not come.

He stood there in the plain gray light with the scar through his eyebrow, amber-eyed and steady, and the poison in his blood lay quiet.

← Chapter 22 · All chapters · Chapter 24 →

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