All Chapters of The Bride with Two Wolves : Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

ElaraElara was pounding on her bedroom door before the sun had cleared the hills."Open it!" Her fist hit the wood again. "I know you're out there!"She had spent what was left of the night sitting on the edge of her bed and listening to the house move around her. She had heard footsteps in the hall and low voices behind closed doors. She had heard the scrape of a chair, as if someone had stood up too fast. But nobody had come to tell her anything. And now, near dawn she had tried the handle and found it locked from the outside.After a while, a key turned and her mother stood in the hall, dressed and pinned and composed, a folded gray cloak over one arm."Put this on.""Why was my door locked?""For your safety." Mother held out the cloak. "Wear the hood up. Tell no servant what you heard last night, or what you felt. If anyone asks, you are unwell and frightened for your sister.""I am frightened for my sister.""Then it will be easy." Mother's voice did not rise. It never did. "Ke

ElaraThe stairs had never felt so long.Elara climbed them with one hand on the rail and the other pressed flat against her ribs, as if she could hold two wolves in place by force. Behind her, the sitting room had gone silent. Nobody had tried to stop her when she stood up. Mother had only turned the tea tray another quarter inch while watching her go.On the landing, outside the last door in the hall, Elara stopped.She pressed the heels of both hands hard against her eyes until the heat behind them settled into something she could manage. Then she wiped her cheeks and rolled her shoulders. She wore a practiced smile at first, but decided to just let it go.Then she knocked twice, the way she always did, and pushed the door open.The room smelled of mint and old fever. A single lamp burned on the side table, throwing more shadow than light, and the curtains were drawn. Rowan sat propped against a mountain of pillows that seemed determined to swallow him whole. His hair, dark like he

ElaraElara had rehearsed seven insults on the ride north, but by the time the lodge came into view she could not remember a single one.It stood alone in a clearing of dark pine trees, a squat building of black timber and river stone with a slate roof and a single chimney threading smoke into the late afternoon. No banners hung from the roof and no guards stood at the door. It looked like a place where nobody lived and everybody hid."Neutral ground," said the older of her two Silvermoon escorts as he reined his horse to a stop at the treeline. His name was Corwin, and he had taught her to ride when she was nine. He did not look at her face though. "We'll wait here. If you need us...""I won't.""If you need us," he said again, " just shout."She nodded before sliding down from the saddle on legs that felt borrowed, then she pulled the gray hood tighter around her face and walked the last fifty yards alone.The pines closed behind her. The wind carried the smell of resin and cold ash