Chapter 12: Nine Days Early

On the ninth night of the thirty, a storm came down the mountain and took out the power at Silverfen.

I found Joran in the woodshed.

He had been splitting logs since dawn, because nobody had told him to stop.

He had called every scout sir for nine days without once rolling his eyes.

He carried water, and he ate last, and he slept on a cot in the tool room with his shoulder still stitched.

The pack had started leaving him sandwiches on the shed step.

Rain hammered the tin roof.

He stood in the lantern light with his shirt off and the axe in his hand.

His body was lean and cut, with a fresh pink scar under the shoulder where Osric's blade had gone in.

I stopped in the doorway.

"You should be asleep," I said.

"I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"You know why."

He set the axe against the block.

He didn't step toward me.

He kept his hands at his sides, and I saw what it cost him.

For nine days I had watched him follow my rules to the letter.

He had never once looked at my mouth.

I had caught him looking at my hands.

"Thirty days," I said.

"Twenty-one left."

"I told you I needed that time to decide."

"You did."

"I lied."

His eyes came up.

They were bright gold, and for the first time since the hall they had their color back.

"I knew the moment I saw you with that axe on the first morning," I said. "I've been stubborn for nine days because I wanted to see what you'd do."

"What did I do?"

"Everything I told you."

His breath came out unsteady.

I crossed the shed and stopped an inch away from him, close enough to feel the heat coming off his skin.

"Your rule," he said, low. "I'm not allowed to touch you unless you touch me first."

"Then be quiet and let me."

I put my palm flat on his chest.

His heart hit it hard.

I slid my hand down over his ribs, over the cut muscle, to the waist of his jeans.

He groaned, and it came from deep in his chest.

"Ilse."

"I want you to stop waiting for permission," I said.

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