Fated to My Mate's Uncle novel · Chapter 24 of 32

Chapter 24: The Ring

We drove south with the windows up and the heater on.

Fraser waited until Missoula to say it.

"You've read in front of this crew every Saturday for a month."

"The crew never swore me into anything."

"No." He glanced at me. "The crew just bet their lives on you at the school."

I didn't have an answer for that, so I put my hand over his on the gearshift and left it there.

That Saturday, I took the ring out of the kit.

The barn was full.

Word had gone around, and every man on the crew had come, even the ones who said reading was witchcraft.

Patsy sat on an upturned bucket by the door with her reading glasses on.

I set the seal bag on the folding table.

"This is Angus Kinnaird's wedding ring," I said. "It's been in a crack in a dock for eight years. In two weeks I read it in front of three packs."

"So why read it here?" the gray-bearded wolf said.

"Because at nineteen, I read the loudest thing and stopped. I want you to watch me. If I stop at the loud one, you tell me."

"How will we know?"

"You'll know. You've all got noses. Some of you even use them."

The kid in the yellow shirt sat up straight.

I opened the bag.

I put the ring on a square of clean white cotton and leaned over it.

Gold holds scent badly in the open.

Down in a crack, out of the sun and rain, it holds it.

Grime first. Old creosote. The green rot of pond weed.

Then the loud one.

Whiskey. Sweat. A young man's blood, the same as the swatch.

Gregor.

I said his name out loud.

The crew didn't make a sound.

I breathed past him.

Under Gregor there was a man.

Sunburn. Fish scales. Engine grease. A big, warm, easy scent, and on top of it, sharp as a slap, anger.

"Angus," I said. "He was angry. Not afraid. Angry."

"At who?" the medic asked.

"I don't know yet."

I breathed again.

Fainter. Smaller. Pressed right into the gold.

Sweet.

Too sweet for a dock.

Under the sweet, cold sweat, coming up all at once.

I sat back.

"Kid," I said. "Come here."

He came, wiping his hands on his jeans.

"Don't think. Just tell me."

He leaned down over the ring.

He breathed for a long time, with his eyes shut.

Then his eyes came open.

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