# Chapter 9: The Lake

Nobody moved.

Margot stood in the doorway with her hand out, smiling. Kael sat at the table, frozen. And I sat there holding a mug of hot chocolate that suddenly tasted like ashes in my mouth.

*Come back to bed.*

So I was right. That laugh I heard at midnight, through the wall. The shirt. Everything.

I was such an idiot.

Kael stood up. His chair scraped loud against the floor.

"Margot," he said. His voice was flat and cold as ice. "Go back to *your* bed. In the guest room. Where you've been sleeping since you arrived."

Margot's smile didn't move, not even a little. But I saw something flicker in her green eyes.

"Don't be silly, baby," she said. "We're engaged. I can sleep wherever I want."

"Not in my room."

"But you left the door open for me."

"I didn't."

"And you gave me your shirt."

"You took it from my closet," Kael said slowly, "while I was at the border."

The kitchen went very quiet.

Margot laughed. It was a soft, pretty, fake little laugh. She dropped her hand and walked into the kitchen like she owned it. She went to the fridge and took out a bottle of water, and the whole time, her eyes were on me.

"Oh, Sienna," she said sweetly. "I'm sorry. I didn't see you there. You're so easy to miss."

I put my mug down very carefully on the table, so I wouldn't throw it at her.

"Nice shirt," I said. "Shame it doesn't fit you."

Her smile went tight.

"Excuse me?"

"It's too big for you. Like it was made for someone else." I stood up on my one good foot. "Goodnight, Margot. Goodnight, *Alpha*."

I hopped out of that kitchen with as much dignity as a girl with one fat purple ankle and fuzzy socks can have. Which was not much.

But I didn't look back, and I didn't cry. Not until I got to the stairs.

---

I was halfway up the first flight when I heard him behind me.

"Sienna. Wait."

"Go away."

"Let me explain."

"You don't owe me anything." I kept hopping. One stair. Two stairs. My ankle hurt. My eyes hurt. Everything hurt. "She's your fiancée. You can do whatever you want."

"I haven't touched her."

I stopped.

He was standing two steps below me, so for once, our faces were the same height. The hallway was dark, and his eyes were shining in the moonlight from the window.

"Our fathers made the deal two years ago," he said quietly. "Silver Creek is the biggest pack in Montana. If we're joined to them, nobody will ever attack Blackthorn Ridge again. My people will be safe." His jaw went tight. "That's all it is, Sienna. A deal. A piece of paper. I've never kissed her. I've never wanted to."

"Then why was she laughing in your room the other night?"

"She came in to talk about wedding flowers. I told her to leave. She thought it was funny." He shook his head. "She thinks everything is funny when she gets what she wants."

I wanted to believe him. I really did.

"Then why are you marrying her?" I whispered.

He opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

And that was my answer.

I turned around and hopped up the rest of the stairs, and I didn't stop until I was in my room with the door locked. I sat on my bed and pulled my knees up to my chest.

I heard him come up the stairs a few minutes later. I heard him stop outside my door. For a long time, he just stood there. I could see his shadow under the door.

Then he walked away. His door opened, and closed.

I didn't sleep at all that night.

---

Day four.

He knocked on the bathroom door at five in the morning.

"Put on your boots," he said through the door. "We're going out."

"The doctor said I can't train for two days."

"We're not training. We're studying. Bring a jacket."

I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay in bed and hide under the covers for a hundred years. But the deal was the deal. And I was not going to lose it because of Margot Hale and a stupid black shirt.

So I put on my boots, very carefully over my wrapped ankle, and my old green jacket, and I went.

He had a truck waiting outside. An old blue truck, a little rusty, not the shiny black car his father used. I was surprised.

"This is yours?" I asked.

"I bought it when I was sixteen. With my own money." He opened the passenger door for me. "Get in."

I got in. It smelled like pine trees and old coffee.

We drove in silence. Down the hill, through the sleeping town, and out onto a small dirt road that went deep into the forest. The sky was turning pink over the mountains.

Neither of us talked about last night. The air in the truck was thick with it.

After twenty minutes, he stopped the truck at the edge of the trees. And when I got out, I forgot to be angry.

In front of us was a lake. It was big and still and perfect, like a giant mirror lying on the ground. The pink morning sky was in the water, and the dark green pines, and the snowy mountains far away. Little curls of white mist floated over the surface. A bird called somewhere, long and lonely.

"Oh," I breathed. "Oh wow."

"Silver Lake," Kael said, standing next to me. "It marks the east border of our land. Everything on this side is ours. Everything across the water belongs to nobody. That's where the rogues live."

He had a big book under his arm, and a rolled-up map. He spread the map out on the hood of the truck and held down the corners with stones.

"Today, you learn the land," he said. "Every hill, every creek, every rock. A Guard has to know these woods better than her own bedroom."

So he taught me.

He showed me the four borders on the map, north, south, east and west. He showed me the old trails, the hunting paths, the places where the ground gets soft and you can sink to your knees. He showed me how to read the stars at night if you get lost, and which moss only grows on the north side of the trees.

He was a good teacher. A really good one. He was patient. He explained things twice, slowly, if I didn't understand them. When I got something right, he nodded, and something in his face looked proud.

Slowly, the hard knot in my chest started to loosen.

"Kael," I said, after an hour. "Can I ask about the ribbon? Lily's ribbon?"

His hand stopped on the map.

"I put two guards at the cemetery last night," he said. "Day and night, they're watching her grave. And I have someone checking every person who's been in our house this week. Staff, guards, guests. Everyone."

"Margot?"

He looked at me. "Everyone."

I nodded. Then I looked out at the lake for a long moment.

"I'm sorry I was so rude last night," I said quietly.

"You weren't rude."

"I told Margot her shirt didn't fit her."

The corner of his mouth went up. "She deserved it."

"I hopped away like an angry rabbit."

"A very fierce angry rabbit."

I laughed. I couldn't help it. And he laughed too, a low, quiet laugh, and for a moment, it was just the two of us and the pink sky and the still, silver water.

"Sienna," he said softly. "About last night. In the kitchen. Before she came in…"

My heart started to pound.

"I meant every word," he said.

I turned to look at him. He was standing so close. The morning wind was moving his dark hair across his forehead, and his gray eyes were the same color as the lake.

"You can't," I whispered. "You're marrying her."

"I know."

"So what are we doing, Kael?"

He didn't answer. He just looked at me like I was the only thing in the whole world worth looking at.

Then something strange happened.

The forest went quiet.

It wasn't the normal kind of quiet. The bird that had been singing stopped. The little animals in the bushes stopped rustling. Even the wind seemed to stop. It was like the whole forest was holding its breath.

I didn't know how I knew. Hollow girls aren't supposed to notice things like that. But I felt it. A cold, sharp feeling at the back of my neck, like someone was watching.

"Kael," I whispered. "Something's wrong."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Listen. The birds stopped."

He turned his head slowly toward the dark trees across the water. His whole body changed. His shoulders went hard, and his hands curled into fists. His eyes began to glow, just a little, a faint silver-gray.

"Get in the truck," he said quietly. "Now."

I moved. But I was slow, so slow, with my stupid ankle.

There was a sound like a whip cracking through the air. Something flew past my face so close that I felt the wind of it on my cheek.

*THUNK.*

I froze.

An arrow was sticking out of the tree right beside my head. It was still shaking. It had missed me by one inch.

And tied around the end of the arrow, flapping softly in the wind, was a pale blue silk ribbon.