Chapter 8: What He Said

The Warden did not answer him for a long moment.

Then she nodded once at the announcer.

The announcer lifted a brass horn and blew a long, low note that quieted every seat.

Ronan walked to the center of the Bowl.

He had pulled on the gray trousers someone threw him, and he wore nothing else.

Blood ran down the side of his face, and he did not wipe it.

I stood at the edge of the Ashfall line with Bram's blanket around my shoulders.

Calista was on her feet in the Blackpine box now.

Her hand had left her locket and gripped the rail.

"Wolves of the Compact," Ronan said.

His voice cracked on the first word.

He tried again, louder.

"I owe a debt, and I am paying it here, where you can all hear."

A murmur ran through the stands.

"I called her a liar," he said.

"I said she had crept across our border to meet a stranger behind my back."

"I never asked her whether that was true."

Nobody moved.

"Her name is Eira Wexley," he said.

He turned, and I felt every head in the Bowl follow his eyes to me.

"I had sworn to her the night before that I would pick her in any life."

"The next morning a voice told me something, and I believed it."

"I didn't ask her one question."

"I didn't give her one minute."

"I stood up in front of everyone I knew and put my pride ahead of the one person who never lied to me."

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