Chapter 14: The Band Breaks

I did not get up.

Cormick's fingertips moved over a place between my shoulder blades.

I felt a warmth there that had not been there last night.

"What is it?" I asked.

"A mark. Silver, about the size of my thumb. It's shaped like a half moon."

"Is it a bruise?"

"No." He traced the edge. "It's lit from underneath."

I twisted and could not see it.

He found a hand mirror on the dresser and held it behind me.

I looked over my shoulder at a small silver crescent that glowed faintly in the grey light.

I had never seen anything like it on a wolf.

"Have you?" I said.

"Not on anyone living." His voice was careful. "I'll ask someone who has read more of the Hall's old books than I have."

"Does it hurt?"

"Does it hurt you?"

"It feels like your hand."

He put his mouth on the crescent, very lightly, and I shut my eyes.

Then I reached up with my left arm to push my hair back, and I stopped.

Around my wrist, where there had been a thin grey ring for three years, there was only pale skin.

"Cormick. My band is gone."

"Your what?"

"The courtship band. The Ormond family puts it on at the hearth. It doesn't wash off."

I rubbed the place with my thumb, and nothing came away.

He took my wrist and turned it over in the light.

"Who put it there?" His voice had gone flat.

"Niles's mother. In my first autumn."

"And it never came off."

"It wasn't meant to."

He kissed the inside of my wrist where the ring had been.

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