Chapter 12: What He Left at the Stone

Lucan did not speak until they were back inside the Hollow.

He sat on the hides with his hand pressed to his ribs.

Jory knelt beside him and cut the bandage away without being asked.

The cuts had opened. They were not deep, but they were angry.

Bix slept in the corner with his notched ear against the wall.

He had cried himself out on the walk home, and Jory had carried him the whole way.

"You should not have gone," Lucan said at last.

"I know."

"I would have gone with you."

"I know that too." Jory pressed clean hide to the wound. "I was angry."

"You were right to be."

It was so quiet and plain that Jory looked up.

Lucan's eyes were on the fire.

"I let them call you what they called you," Lucan said. "I told myself it was kindness. It was not."

He swallowed.

"I will tell the pride tonight that you belong to nobody."

"Thank you," Jory said.

"I should have said it before."

"Lucan." Jory sat back on his heels. "Hadrick said to ask you something."

The lion king's face closed like a door.

"He says a great many things."

"He said to ask what I left at your stone."

Nothing moved in the den but the fire.

Lucan reached slowly for his belt, untied the pouch, and held it in his lap without opening it.

"You swore to me you did not remember," he said.

"I don't," Jory said.

"You said you took a blow to the head."

"Lucan, I don't remember anything about a stone," Jory said. "What did I leave?"

"Do not do this," Lucan said.

"Do what?"

"Play at not knowing."

His voice cracked in the middle.

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