The Silver Wolf novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: On Top

Calla's POV

Something hit the back door at one in the morning, and I was down the stairs with a skillet before I was awake.

Hesper said, "Him."

I opened the door and Cormick fell into my arms.

He was heavier than I'd ever have guessed, and wet through with blood, and he still tried to stand up straight.

"Don't," I said. "Don't you dare apologize."

"I wasn't going to."

"Good."

I got him to the kitchen table.

Hattie came down in her nightgown with her glasses already on, looked at him once, and pointed at the cupboard.

"Needle's in the blue tin. Thread's next to it. Clean the wound first, boil what you use, and don't let him talk his way out of a stitch."

"You won't help?"

"I've sewn up half this pack," she said. "You can do one man."

She took her lantern and went back upstairs.

I heard the radio come on, loud, and a door shut.

Cormick looked at the ceiling.

"She's giving us the kitchen," he said.

"She's giving me the stitching."

I cut his shirt off him.

The bite was deep, above the old scar, and two ribs on that side were cracked.

I washed it out while he held the edge of the table and breathed through his teeth.

"Tell me," I said.

"Alder was at the border."

"Is he alive?"

"Alive. Sick." He told me the rest in a flat, steady voice, looking at the wall, and I stopped with the needle in the air when he reached the cup.

"Say that again."

"The cup was the sacrament," he said. "He gave it to her himself."

"They told me it was a fever."

"I know."

"I sat by her bed. I held her hand for nine days."

He stopped talking.

"Hesper," I said.

"I remember the cup," Hesper said, very low. "I could not wake. I could only watch."

I finished the stitch, pulled the thread through, and tied it off.

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