Chapter 10: Zero

Rook went down on his knees and pressed his palm to the ground.

The howl came again, thinner this time, and then it stopped.

"Rook," I said.

He didn't answer.

A cluster of lights bobbed through the fog toward us, and Delphine's voice floated ahead of them.

"Congratulations, my darlings! First across the line!"

Rook stood, and his face went smooth and charming in a heartbeat.

It was the most frightening thing I had seen him do.

"Delphine," he said. "What a pleasure."

She came out of the mist with two cameramen behind her, flushed and bright.

"Did you hear something odd?" she asked, a shade too casual.

"The wind," I said.

"The wind," Rook agreed.

She looked from him to me for a long, bright second.

"How lovely," said Delphine.

That night he took me back to the boathouse.

He didn't touch me.

He sat on the edge of the couch with his elbows on his knees, and for a long time he stared at the floor.

"She was twenty-two," he said. "Last season's Number Nineteen."

I sat beside him.

"The same number as mine?"

"Delphine gives it to whoever the Well wants. My sister entered under another name. I didn't know until the first elimination."

"What was she like?"

His mouth moved.

"Loud. She used to throw bread at me at dinner. She wanted a mate who'd make her laugh."

"And the Well?"

"It took her wolf on the final night. They made her the Luna after, so the cameras wouldn't ask why she couldn't speak."

He raised his hands and let them fall.

"She lives in a care home now. She hasn't made a sound since. She watches the door."

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