Chapter 23: The Claim Answered

I gave my answer in the middle of the old iron bridge, at sunset.

Both packs stood on their own banks with every face turned toward me.

It was Rhys's idea. Nobody had ever answered a claim there.

Costa stood on the Cairnfell end with his shirt torn and his eye stitched.

I stood in the middle, where my brother had told me the truth.

Rhys was at my shoulder, and Bram was at Costa's.

"A claim was made on this woman," Bram called, so the river carried it. "Before both packs. Let her answer."

The bridge went quiet, and the water ran under it.

"First," I said, and my voice shook, and I let it, "nobody in either pack is ever sold again."

"Not for a debt, not for a price, not for a favor. Anyone who tries answers to both of us."

"Hollowmere swears it," Rhys said at once.

"Cairnfell swears it," said Costa.

A sound rose from the crowd on both banks. It wasn't a cheer. It was lower and stranger, and it went on.

"Second," I said. "The bridge stays open to both packs."

"There are no more truces here, because there's no war."

"Agreed."

"Third. I am Willa Kingsmill, and I'm Rhys's sister, and I say so in the open."

"Nobody who loves me keeps me in the dark again."

My brother's hand tightened on my shoulder.

"And fourth," I said.

I walked toward Costa.

I crossed the distance slowly.

He didn't move to meet me. He had promised, and he held to it, and it made my throat ache.

I stopped in front of him.

"I was told I'd been claimed," I said. "I'd like to do the claiming."

His eyes had already gone gold.

"Costa Rooke," I said. "You walked into that cellar to buy me."

"You spent the rest of the week undoing it, and you read your father's sins aloud to your own pack."

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