Three Wolves, One Irresistible Pull novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Letters

Jorund fell asleep in my bed with one arm over my waist.

I lay under that heavy arm for an hour, listening to him breathe.

Then I slid out, pulled on my coat over my shirt, and limped into the cold.

Caelan Gournay was on the east wall, sitting in a crenel with his boots dangling over the dark.

He had a wine bottle between his knees, unopened.

"I'm sorry," he said, without turning.

"For what?"

"For standing there.

"I meant to knock, and then I heard you, and I couldn't make my feet move."

"You listened to the whole thing."

"I'm an animal.

"It's in the name."

I sat down on the stone beside him, a careful arm's length away.

The border wind blew my hair across my face.

"I'm not angry," he said.

"I know you're not."

"How?"

"Because you're Caelan.

"You'd rather crack a joke than hit anyone."

He laughed once, quietly.

Then he went serious, which on his face looked like a mask falling off.

"The letters were mine."

My heart stopped.

"The first one came the winter after the Hallow Pass," I said.

"It had one line.

"'Someone should tell you your braid is always crooked on the left.'"

"It's true."

"I kept it."

"I know.

"I saw it, in your tent, last spring, under the lamp.

"You'd read it so many times the fold had gone soft."

I stared at the dark.

"The one in the second winter was about the fox in the snow."

"The one who wouldn't leave the post."

"You wrote that you'd never seen anything so stubborn.

"You wrote that you knew the feeling."

"I did."

"Why unsigned?"

"Because the first time I tried to sign one, I thought, what if she reads my name and stops?"

He turned his head at last.

His gold eyes were bright in the moonlight.

"I've written you thirty-one letters, General.

"I burned nine drafts before I sent the first one, and I sent every one after.

"I never got a reply, and I was a hundred percent sure you were throwing them in the stove."

"I read them all.

"I read them three times."

He drew a breath and let it out in a shaky line.

"Good," he said.

"I wanted you to."

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