LOGINSeraChief Vane stood outside my door, his knuckles rapping against the wood so softly I almost missed it. "Luna, may I enter?" he called through the thick oak. His voice sounded polite enough, but I could hear the unease behind it."Enter," I called back, and I made myself sound steadier than I felt. I stayed seated in my chair, facing the door as Mina stood silent guard at my side.When Vane stepped inside, whatever confidence he'd mustered in the hall outside seemed to leave him. His shoulders stiffened as he scanned the room, taking in my darkened private chambers. His eyes touched briefly on Amara where she stood near the hearth and moved on without pausing, the way a man's gaze passes over furniture he already expects to find there. The only light came from a single candle burning beside me, and it cast long shadows across his face.He bowed his head in greeting, my title falling stiffly from his lips. "Luna."I studied him, trying to read his mood. Vane was an older wolf with s
SeraI'd lost count of the separate ways Mina had made her point tonight, because I'd stopped listening to the words hours ago. What I heard now was the raw edge in her voice, worn hoarse from talking over my silence.Underneath the counting was the thing I couldn't get away from. Taya was still going to be standing in that ring in the morning, no matter what Mina said, or how she argued it.Amara sat on the floor by the hearth where I'd left her, knees drawn up, watching the pair of us. Her eyes went to whichever of us was speaking and stayed there until the other one started. Neither of us had said a word to her in hours."Are you clear on how that oil actually works, Sera? It's not a spell. It's a seal, and it only holds while you're still. It thins when you sweat. It breaks outright when you bleed." Mina's hands went out at her sides. "Do you want to be standing in a dirt ring with your own blood on you and every wolf in Ironmaw close enough to smell what's in your belly?"I said
TayaI turned the page over. There was nothing on the back of it.I picked up the next one.Kael.I'm waiting.And the next.Brother,It's been six weeks. I've sent three men and none of them come back with anything but the word that you're well and busy.If I've offended you, say so and I'll take it as it comes. If something's wrong, say that instead and I'll come. But don't leave me sitting up here reading trader gossip about my own blood.They went on like that, shorter each time. My uncle's hand stayed neat all the way through, but the letters got thinner, four lines and then three, and I could feel the man on the other end of them getting quieter and less certain, and then finally not asking anymore at all.I sat with the last few of them in my hands and something turned over in my chest.He hadn't answered.My father, who had spent three months riding out to the outer camps in the snow telling anyone who would stand still that the treaty was a knife in the North's back, who had
TayaThe paper was good. Thick, pale and expensive, the kind of stock you use when you want the man on the other end to know what you can afford. Nothing like the scratch paper my father kept in the top drawer for household accounts.I didn't recognize the hand at all. It was nothing like my father's cramped, angry scrawl, but upright and even with every letter finished, the writing of a man who had never once been in a hurry when he sat down to write.I read to the bottom of the first page before I found out who he was.Vidar Sarn.Uncle Vidar. My father's brother.I sat back. I couldn't remember the last time anyone had said that name out loud in this house. There was a summer when I was small and a man's hand had come down toward me, and a laugh I couldn't put a face to anymore, and then nothing after that. He'd gone out of our lives at some point and nobody had ever explained it, and I'd stopped asking somewhere around the age I stopped asking my father for anything.There were nea
TayaMy ears still rang as I stumbled into the house. The bitter chill stung my face, but it couldn't drown out Rurik's voice echoing in my head."Get out of my house, Taya," he snarled, blood flecking his teeth. His hand pressed to the gash on his temple, courtesy of my boot. I stood there in the center of the shattered table, mouth dry and useless."Sorry," I mumbled. A pathetic word. A stupid word. What did 'sorry' even mean to a broken skull? To a broken table? To broken everything?I blinked down at my hand. My fingers clenched around the hilt of my knife, the cold handle seeping into my palm. When had I grabbed this?"Damn it."I shoved the knife into my belt and stomped upstairs.I was finally home. My own house, then. My own room, my own bed, my own everything, and tomorrow morning I would go down into that ring and settle the only thing left that was actually mine to settle.Except the door was locked.I kicked at it, jarring my shoulder with the force of it, and cursed loudly
Taya"The friendly duel is over. My father is talking to her. It's done.""You have no right—""I have every right. You're my guest. You're my friend. And you're about to do something irreversible because you can't let go of a grudge against someone you cannot hurt." He held up a hand. "I'm not arguing this with you, Taya. No duel. That's where this ends."He swallowed. Still looking at me. Waiting for me to fight him on it.I didn't say anything.He shook his head in disgust and turned for the door.I don't know what happened in the space between him turning and me moving. I wasn't thinking. I wasn't deciding.Two steps and I was inside his reach, my weight already shifting into it. I could feel the leather of my boot against my leg as I raised my foot, the pull of tendon in my calf.His shoulder was just starting to turn. He was still looking at the door, half-turned, half-facing away. His face was still smooth, still oblivious, eyes cast toward the open hall beyond it. He never got
SeraNight fell fast, and with it, the temperature plummeted. We had three fires going, but the heat didn't seem to travel more than six inches past the flames. I sat on a log by the middle fire, pulling the wagon fur around my shoulders, shivering so hard my teeth were literally clicking together.
LyraShe ignored me. She dropped to her knees, her hands sliding down to the waistband of my trousers. She shoved her fingers inside the fabric, gripping my hips tight. With one sharp pull, she dragged the pants and my underwear down to my ankles. I stepped out of them, kicking my boots off in the
Lyra"Tell the girl to step into the room," he said."Leave her out of this," I said. My voice came out as a pathetic, raspy whisper. I cleared my throat, trying to find some spine. "She didn't do anything. It was my idea to come in here.""Tell her to step into the room," he said, his eyes going d
LyraThe voice didn't belong to Nadia. It didn't belong to me. It came from the metallic object resting directly behind my hip.Nadia froze. She pulled her mouth away from me and yanked her fingers out of my body. She stood up quickly, wiping her wet mouth with the back of her hand, her chest heavi







