All Chapters of Marked and Cast Out, She Came Back Untouchable : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Sable's POV Yarrow sent me back to camp with more questions than I walked in with, and no real answers to go along with them. I spent the walk back turning her words over ‘he stopped halfway through’ trying to figure out what that even meant for someone like me. By the time I reached the fire pit, the sun had started dipping low, and the camp had shifted into its evening rhythm. Someone was cooking something over the flames that smelled better than anything Reva ever let me eat. A few wolves sat scattered around, talking low, glancing my way and then quickly not glancing my way, the same dance I'd gotten used to over the past few days. I found a spot near the edge of the fire, far enough from the crowd to not feel like I was intruding, close enough to actually feel warm. "You're the one Rook picked up." The voice came from behind me, flat, not really a question. I turned and found the woman from earlier, the one Ivy had pointed out on our walk,Sela, the one who said no to an arran

Sable's POV"Breathe," Ivy said, kneeling in front of me, both hands wrapped around mine, around the knife, around the frost spreading further down my wrist by the second. "Just breathe. Panicking is only going to make it worse.""I'm trying." My teeth had started chattering, though the morning wasn't cold enough to explain it. "It won't let go, Ivy.""I know. I've got you." She didn't loosen her grip, but her voice dropped steady, calm in a way that felt deliberate, like she was fighting to keep it that way. "Whatever's happening, it's coming from you, not the blade. So you're the one who has to stop it.""How?""I don't know. But you healed Bram without knowing how either. Figure it out."I closed my eyes, tried to focus on anything other than the cold burning into my palm. I thought about the fire pit the night before, Sela's voice, the warmth of flames against my face. I thought about the sun on my back a few minutes ago, before any of this started.Slowly, the ice loosened.Not a

Sable's POV"I unbound you," I said slowly, pulling the words back up from that night, careful to get them exact. "The mate bond doesn't exist between us anymore. It never will again."Yarrow's eyes stayed fixed on mine the whole time, not blinking, not moving."That's it? Nothing more before the chanting is cut off?""That's it. Then the Elder started the old tongue, and everything happened fast after that."She sat with it for a long moment, turning the words over in her head the way I'd been turning them over in mine for days now."He unbound you," she repeated quietly. "Not us. You.""Does that matter?""It might." She didn't explain further, just filed it away with that same careful look she'd been giving everything I told her. "I need to think on this more before I say anything I can't take back later. Go on. I'll find you if I learn something worth telling."I left her tent with more questions than I walked in with, same as every time, and made my way back toward the fire pit,

Sable's POV"I don't know what I am," I said, my voice barely holding steady. "I already told you that."Dax didn't answer. He just stared at me like I'd grown a second head, chest heaving, boots still dripping where the ice had cracked and melted around them.Ivy got between us fast, one hand on Dax's shoulder, pushing him back a step. "That's enough. Training's done for today.""Done for today?" Dax shook her off. "She just froze the ground under my feet without touching a weapon. That's not something you walk off with a shrug.""I didn't mean to," I said again, though the words felt useless the second they left my mouth."Doesn't matter what you meant." His eyes hadn't left me, hard and unblinking. "Matter is what you can do, and nobody here knew you could do that.""Neither did I."That seemed to catch him off guard for half a second, some of the fury flickering into something closer to confusion. He didn't get the chance to say anything else, though, because Rook was already cros

"I'm alive," I said. "Barely, some nights, but yeah. Alive."Petra didn't say anything for a moment, just kept staring at me like she was still catching up to the reality of it. Around us the trading post kept moving, wolves haggling and hauling sacks past us like nothing strange was happening at all."I don't have long," I said finally, glancing at Ivy, who gave me a small nod that meant ‘your call, but not too long.’ "We're here on a supply run. I can't really talk.""Right." Petra swallowed, some of the shock finally settling into something steadier. "Are you... is someone taking care of you? Where have you been?""Somewhere safe," I said, keeping it vague on purpose. "That's all I can say."She nodded slowly, like she understood why I wouldn't trust her with more than that, even now. "If you ever need anything….""I don't," I cut in, not unkindly, just honest. "Not from Ironclaw. Not from anyone connected to it."Something flickered across her face, hurt maybe, or something close