The Wolfless Girl He Marked novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Open Door

"Don't scream," Anson said. "The fire department has only just left."

I stayed where I was, ten feet from him, in the middle of the empty path.

"What do you want?"

"What I've wanted since the night I borrowed your pen."

He held it up in the lamplight, steel and gold, M.O. on the barrel.

"Come to the Gathering on Saturday as my sister's witness."

"Sign the renunciation in your own hand. You walk away with a hundred thousand dollars and a new name."

"And nobody touches your cousin or your aunt's clinic."

"And Cade?"

"Cade goes back to his doses, where he's safe."

I breathed in.

Nothing about it smelled sour, and that frightened me more than a lie would have.

"You can keep your money," I said.

"Then let me tell you something kind." His voice softened. "That mark is not love, Freja. It's obedience. He can't leave you, so he can't choose you."

"You're wrong."

"Am I? Ask him to walk away. Ask him tonight, and see what he does."

He tossed the pen up, caught it, and slid it into his coat.

"I'll see you Saturday, Miss Soderstrom."

He walked off toward Greaves Hall.

I stood in the snow with my hands shaking, and the worst part was that I wanted to know.

The footsteps behind me were heavy and fast.

"I thought I told you to go back to Pine Hall," Cade said.

He had come after me anyway.

His eyes were clear, and his shirt was torn at the collar from the fight upstairs.

"I'm going," I said. "Walk me."

We climbed the stairs of Pine Hall in silence.

Tilly was sleeping over at a friend's across the quad, and my room was dark.

I turned on the lamp, shut the door, and faced him.

"Go," I said.

His face went still.

"That's an order?"

"No. It's the opposite. I'm telling you that you can leave."

"Freja."

"I won't say stay, and I won't say come here."

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