Chapter 2

The pine wood quickly blackened.

The first year I came back, I took it to my mother and asked if I could hang it on the fireplace.

She said the family name plaques were all custom-made to match. Mine was too rough and wouldn't look right hanging there.

She told me to put it in the guest room for now, and they'd talk about it next year.

Later, I found out Lily had two spare plaques in her bedroom.

One from when she was a cub.

The other was made specially by the craftsman because my father was afraid her old one might break.

Brooks walked to the fireplace and recognized the name in the fire. His expression stiffened.

"Why did you burn that?"

I didn't answer.

He frowned.

"It's just a wooden plaque. Once Lily's better, we'll get you a new one next year. Isn't that enough?"

I turned and went upstairs.

Because there was no next year.

The guest room at the far end of the second floor was where I had lived in the main house for three years.

The family members' rooms were all on the south side, with sunlight, fireplaces, and terraces leading out to the forest.

I lived on the north side.

My mother said Lily was a light sleeper and wasn't used to having someone else living on the south side.

As I passed the hallway, Lily called out to me with red eyes.

"I'm sorry. If I hadn't gotten hurt, they definitely would have let you attend the winter solstice feast this year."

"You don't need to apologize."

I stopped in front of the guest room door.

"This home was always yours."

She blinked, then reached out and grabbed my sleeve.

"You're still blaming me for having Ethan go with me to the lodge, aren't you?"

"But every time I close my eyes, I think of that day... I'm really so scared."

"Let go."

She held on tighter.

"I just want to explain to you. Why do you always hate me so much?"

I looked down and saw the ring on her ring finger.

A narrow band of white gold, set with a tiny moonstone.

I knew that style very well.

Last month, when Ethan and I went to pick out mate rings, he held that one and looked at it for a long time.

In the end, he put it back and said it didn't suit me.

So he had already decided who it suited better.

A burning pain rose in my chest.

I swallowed the metallic taste in my throat and slowly pulled my sleeve out of her hand.

"Lily, I don't hate you."

"Starting today, whatever you take has nothing to do with me anymore."

I closed the guest room door and took out the two cardboard boxes I had prepared in advance.

There really wasn't much.

When I first came back to Frostridge, I always wanted to make this guest room look like my own bedroom.

I displayed the medal I'd won in forest patrol training. I put out the only photo of me and my father. I even saved a few commemorative badges the family gave out at gatherings.

Later, there were fewer and fewer things.

My mother said my patrol medal would make Lily uncomfortable because she couldn't stay in wolf form for long.

The photo of me and my father would remind her that she wasn't biologically his.

Even the brooch stamped with the family crest was taken from my drawer because Lily cried and said she couldn't find hers.

In the end, only a few clothes remained, and the moonstone necklace Grandma had left me.

I was just putting the jewelry box into my bag when the door was pushed open.

My mother and Ethan came in together, their coats still dusted with snow.

Ethan first glanced back at Lily in the hallway, confirming she was all right, then frowned at me.

"Brooks said you came back to set fires and made Lily cry."

"I burned my own plaque."

"You know that's not what I mean."

My mother's gaze had already landed on the jewelry box.

She reached for it.

"Nora, leave Grandma's necklace here for now."

I avoided her hand.

"That's what she left me."

Before Grandma died, she had already forgotten many things.

But she still remembered that I had been lost for over a decade.

She held my hand and pressed the necklace into my palm.

"This is yours, child. Don't let anyone else tell you you shouldn't want it."

It wasn't a Luna's emblem, and it couldn't get me any position.

It was just a personal belonging Grandma had worn her whole life.

It was the only thing in this house that had belonged to me from the very beginning.

My mother sighed.

"I know. It's just that Lily has been having nightmares, thinking that losing her pup means Grandma won't bless her anymore."

"Just lend it to her for a few days. When she comes back from the hot spring lodge, she'll return it."

I looked at her.

"Last year, you said you were just lending her my winter solstice dress for one night."

"Later, she had the tailor alter it to her size."

"The year before that, Dad promised to come watch me complete my first patrol assessment. You said he'd just stop by Lily's art show and come right after."

"I waited at the finish line until dark."

My mother's face darkened.

"Why do you always have to bring up old grudges? She just lost a child!"

Ethan stepped closer, his voice carrying a note of advice.

"Don't make an issue of this now. It's just a necklace. I'll buy you a better one in the spring."

He reached out his hand.

I looked at him for a moment and suddenly felt very tired.

It wasn't that I couldn't bear to part with it.

It was that the strength I had left in this life wasn't enough to guard even a small box.

I put the necklace into his palm.

Then I took out the promise ring and placed it on the lid of the box.

Ethan looked down.

His expression finally changed.

"Nora, you're serious?"

"Didn't you say it was just a small thing, not worth making a fuss over?"

I let go.

"Then take it all."

"The necklace goes to her."

"You go to her too."