All Chapters of Knotting the Hunter: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

DaxFinn flips a steak the size of a welcome mat and points the tongs at me."Just so we're clear, this is the weirdest thing you've ever asked me to do, and I was there when you asked Noah out.""Grill louder.""That's not a thing.""Tori says the smell is the whole trap. So make it smell like the best day of its miserable life."Finn is not the most talented grill master in the pack, but he is the most enthusiastic, so I’m hoping that counts.The fire is throwing fat-smoke out over the water in a slow sweet wall, and the lake sits flat and pretty and lying about it.Somewhere under that surface is a horse-shaped thing that eats people and leaves the livers.Picky about the weirdest part.‘I like liver. Lots of iron. Let me kill the horse and I’ll eat its liver.’No. We’re not eating scary Scottish creatures. We don’t know what that would do to us.Two days have passed since Noah came home from Vintage with a burnt piece of paper and a face I never want to see on him again.He talked

Dax"And then he screamed right in my face," Cody says, for what has to be the fourth time since we sat down. "Because I called him a good boy. And she said that's how he shows affection.""Sounds fake," Finn says around a mouthful of potatoes. "Goats don't have feelings. They have agendas.""He let me scratch his ears.""Agenda."Cody came home from the witch's cottage this afternoon lit up like somebody plugged him back in, and he hasn't stopped talking since.The goat.The tea.The road that wasn't there and then was.I could kiss that terrifying old woman.I won't, since I enjoy having lips, but I could.Noah came home quieter.He's parked at the far end of the table with a whetstone and the boning knife.That knife was sharp before he sat down. By now it’s probably sharp enough to have opinions.I know he's just giving his hands a job while the rest of him stares out the window at nothing.He'd already walked me through the visit before dinner, out in the barn where the walls don

Tori"Left foot up. Root.""You said there was a root two seconds ago.""Different root. This forest grows them recreationally."I lift my left foot, find the root with my shin anyway, and swear at a volume that startles something out of a bush.Nineteen today and this is how I'm celebrating.Walking blind through werewolf woods, holding hands with a man who confiscated my flashlight and phone at the truck.This is the evening I was ordered to keep free and ask zero questions about, back when some smug wolf thought he was being mysterious.I kept it free.The zero questions part died on the drive in, most of which I spent on freshly vacuumed and extracted carpet, under a brand-new blanket, which he wanted me to know he'd washed twice and added the fancy softener with the essential oils.I don’t mention that it smells like I’m in a field of chemical flowers and my sinuses are aching.Finn’s being so sweet and it’s making me feel uncharacteristically gooey, so he gets a pass after all t

NoahMost of the cookies survive the walk home.They’re really good. I have three to celebrate and keep the rest for Dax.I feel light enough to fly if a strong enough breeze comes along.Dax is on the porch before I've cleared the tree line. Standing very still, head tipped, nostrils working, with the look of a man whose nose is telling him something his brain refuses to accept."Hey," I call."Don't hey me."He comes down the steps slowly, like I might be a hallucination."Why do you smell like my mother?""Interesting story.""Noah.""I went to see her."He stops walking. I can practically see his brain trying to rearrange itself and being blocked by the same obstacle every time."You went to see my mom.""I did.""Alone. You walked to my mother's house. Alone. On purpose. Without telling me.""Yes. She made coffee and I got cookies."I hold up the wrapped parcel as evidence."She probably meant for you to have some of them, but she never specified that, so I’m claiming them as min

Noah"We do it today," I say."Absolutely not."Dax doesn't even look up from the eggs.He's cooking enough breakfast for a raiding party, his standard behavior when he's happy, and he's been disgustingly happy since I came back from his mother’s house.Not discussing the way my own heart keeps smiling when I think about him claiming me."The dead patch has been sitting out there and growing since we found out about the horse. Every day we leave it is a day she can call something through it. The redcap's dead, There’s nothing current we know about, and I’d really love it if we could make sure the next few days stay nice and uneventful on the monster front.""Tomorrow's the big day.""I know what tomorrow is. Believe me. Nobody at this table knows better than I do what tomorrow is.""Then you understand why nobody's spending today hiking into the far timber to dig up witch garbage.""That's exactly why we spend today on it."I lean over the counter into his line of sight, so he has to