Chapter 5

The fifth trial sent us back to the border sanctuary for packless wolves.

Moonlight rebuilt the low wooden gates, the herb racks, the crooked fence, and the cabins exactly as they had stood twelve years ago.

Before anyone appeared, I heard a pup crying somewhere inside.

The sound was thin and frightened, the kind a very young wolf made when it could smell fire but did not know where to run.

I looked toward the nearest cabin. The windows were dark. There was no one inside yet.

Then the smell of ash reached me.

The fire had not started in the memory, but for one second I saw black handprints on the inside of the glass, small enough to belong to children. I blinked and they were gone.

I stopped at the gate.

This had been the only real home I'd ever known.

It was also the place where I had burned to death.

When Mara Stone stepped out of the nearest cabin and saw me, her face changed at once.

"Erin, sweetheart."

She hurried over and wrapped me in a tight hug.

I knew she was only part of the trial's recreation, but my body still locked in place. The last time I had heard Mara's voice here, she had been coughing in smoke so thick she could barely call the pups' names.

Now her hands were warm.

"How did you get so skinny again?"

She released me and looked me over.

"Have you been giving all your game away again?"

I couldn't help smiling.

"No."

"Liar."

She saw right through me.

Vera walked up behind us.

"Mara."

She put on a gentle smile.

"I came to see you too."

"Do you still have enough of the medicine and food I sent?"

Mara's smile faded.

"That's none of your concern."

Vera stiffened.

"I only care about the children."

"We sent back every batch you delivered."

Mara's voice stayed flat.

"You know perfectly well who paid for it."

Several people glanced over at once.

Vera's voice tightened.

"Mara, are you sure you remember correctly?"

"I'm old, not stupid."

Mara turned away and took my hand.

"I remember exactly who went hunting all winter. Who changed the pups' bandages at night. Who went three days without sleep watching over the ones with fevers."

She led me inside.

"Some people drop by, snap a couple of photos, and start acting like this place's savior."

Vera looked furious.

Someone asked quietly.

"So those donations from before..."

No one answered.

The answer no longer mattered.

Ryan followed me into the old cabin.

A row of crooked height marks still lined one wall.

I ran my hand over them.

"This one is yours."

"What is it?"

"Your height."

I pointed to one of the marks.

"You shot up at sixteen and insisted I'd measured you wrong."

He stared at it.

I pointed to a deeper mark beside it.

"That one is from your first shift."

"You broke the door, then woke up the next morning and denied everything."

Someone nearby laughed.

Ryan didn't.

He studied everything in the cabin, growing more troubled by the second.

The old blanket was still in the corner.

I mentioned it casually.

"You chewed that up."

"You were afraid of thunder and insisted on sleeping outside my door."

"I wasn't afraid of thunder."

The denial came on instinct.

I stared at him.

The room went quiet.

Ryan froze too.

His answer had come too naturally.

As if the boy he'd been twelve years ago had surfaced without warning.

I laughed.

"Right."

"You weren't afraid of thunder."

"You just happened to want to sleep outside my door every time there was a storm."

He swallowed and said nothing else.

A moment later, he turned to Mara.

"The day of the fire."

"Who was the last person here?"

The wind seemed to stop in the yard.

Mara looked at me.

"Erin."

Ryan went rigid.

"Where was Vera?"

"I don't know."

Mara shook her head.

"She wasn't here when the fire started."

Vera cut in.

"I went to get medicine that day!"

The words came too quickly.

Everyone turned toward her.

She struggled to compose herself.

"Mara sent me."

Mara frowned.

"I sent you?"

The color slowly drained from Vera's face.

Then a wolf howled somewhere beyond the trees.

Every wolf in the recreated sanctuary went still at the same time.

The next thing I smelled was smoke.

No flames were visible yet, but an orange glow moved behind the cabin windows as if something were pacing inside the walls.

A heartbeat later, fire roared into the sky.