Chapter 23: The Open Gate

I walked through the gate with the leave in my hand.

Nobody stopped me.

The road ran out ahead of me, white in the first sun, and I walked down it before I let myself stop.

Behind me I could hear nothing at all.

Evander had not moved.

I knew it without turning.

I stood on the open road with the key to my whole life in my fist and thought about the two lives I had lived.

In the first, I had walked to Greywater's hall on Torin's arm and died there.

In the second, I had said no in front of two packs.

I had never once, in either, simply gone where I wanted.

I wanted to be a woman who chose.

I took another step.

The ground shifted under me.

Not the ground, I realized.

Me.

A small bright thing flared under my ribs, a second heartbeat, quick and light, so faint that only a healer would have caught it.

I put my good hand on my belly.

My gift knew it before my mind did.

It rose up warm in my palm and answered, and I knew with absolute certainty that there was a child inside me, very small, very new.

I stood in the middle of the road, shaking.

The last time I had felt that heartbeat I had been nine months along, in a silver ring, with a knife coming down.

This time it was a month old and healthy, and nobody had ever hurt it.

I started to laugh, and then I started to cry.

When I could see again I turned around.

Highcrown stood open behind me.

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