Chapter 9: The Door

Ansel's POV

The knock came at ten, three soft raps, and I knew whose knuckles they were before I stood up.

I had been sitting at the table with a pack ledger open for two hours.

I had read the same line half a dozen times.

I crossed the room and opened the door.

Danica stood on the porch in the yellow light with her hands jammed in her jacket pockets.

Her hair was down, and she had been rubbing her face with her sleeve.

"Is everything all right?" I said.

"No."

"What's happened?"

"Nothing happened." She took a breath. "I need to say something, and I'd like you not to talk until I'm done."

I stepped back to let her in.

She stayed on the porch.

"All right," I said.

"I know what you said in the yard, and I know you gave your word."

She shook her head.

"I'm not here to make you break it. I decided you ought to hear the rest."

"What rest?"

"Carson and I were bonded eleven months, and I stayed through nine rites."

She kept her eyes down.

"You think I loved him. Everyone does."

"They think I went back each time for love of a man who couldn't stop humiliating me."

She looked at the boards under her boots.

"I didn't love him. I spent eleven months trying to, because the moon said I should. It never took."

I could not speak.

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