Chapter 46: The Stone

Thea's POV

We went to the Pinecrest Hearth Stone at first light, with nobody there but the people who mattered.

The Elder stood at the slab in his blanket.

Brigid stood beside him with her stick and her cat on her shoulder.

Daphne stood in the kitchen doorway with flour on her hands.

The shaved-headed wolf stood at the back, trying to be unnoticed.

"You are certain," the Elder said.

"I'm asking," I said. "Nobody told me to."

He nodded slowly.

"The binding at the Stone is an equal rite," he said.

"Two palms, one stone, and the words of both. Neither is the other's guest."

Ewan put his hand on the grey stone.

He had not slept, and neither had I.

I cut my palm with the Elder's small knife, and then I held the knife out, handle first.

He took it and cut his own.

I laid my bleeding hand over his on the Stone.

The blood ran together into the hollow in the middle.

"Say your words," said the Elder.

I looked at Ewan.

"I swear to no pack," I said. "Not to the Keep, and not to the chair."

"I swear to you. I chose this, and I'll choose it every morning I wake up."

"Thea," Ewan said, and his voice broke.

He knelt.

He went down on one knee on the cold floor, with his hand still under mine on the Stone.

He looked up at me.

"I told myself I would never kneel to anyone," he said. "I want to kneel to you. It's my own idea."

I knelt on the floor in front of him.

The stone was freezing through my jeans.

"Then we kneel," I said. "Both."

The Stone woke under our hands.

It lit silver, as it had the first night.

Then warm gold spread from the edge where his palm lay.

Behind me, the shaved-headed wolf made a rough sound in his throat.

Brigid wiped her eyes with her sleeve and told the cat to stop looking.

We drove back to the Keep with the heater on.

Neither of us said a word.

At the top of the stairs, Ewan shut the door of his room and leaned on it.

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