ia'

talking drew attention, and attention brought pain; I had learned to feel safer without either.

er. Before I noticed anything else, a soft, green scent r

end

ugh the pack grounds and the scent of soap drifted from beneath a tarp. Until

water, the scent, the

an said. "I will p

to my collar

id not quite look like pity. Perhaps it was recognition, as

she said, her voice steady and unhurried. "I do not

s necklace against my skin. The silver chain was cold and familiar, the o

id a white gown on the bed, the

ent to myself. They looked at me when something needed scrubbing or

the heat reached my skin-not from p

hat the cold never allowed to heal. My muscles loosened one by one, like knots

moment, I forg

n's wife. I would belong to a stranger, and however

mple, nothing like Celeste's elaborate layers of silk and lace, which p

the first thing I had worn that was neith

in long, slow strokes. She asked nothing about my

ready,"

e stared back, with dull eyes and brown hair that still looked life

charm continued to show the world

necklace ben

until my twent

eated that thought every morning when I woke and every night before I s

se last two days, I

y was brief

he purpose, as though no one had cared enough to make it beautiful. Torches burned in iron b

ere Kaelen's people: Shadowfang warriors and pack members who would be

ether to fear or dismiss. I wondered what they saw-the ugly servant girl, the

stood before them in a white gown tha

yes turned elsewhere. He was as still and balanced as a man at t

gments. His robes were old and heavy, embroidered with unfamiliar symbols, and a sacred flame burned i

in front of me to h

t clung to my hands no matter how hard I scrubbed. After fifteen years of that water and those raw knuck

it fel

n's hand b

for barely a second-warm, deliberate, and

had almost forgotten a touch could be gentle. I did not know whethe

tinued, but my though

d seen her face: streaked with ash, her eyes red as she

ld have

have dressed me and brushed my hair. She would have whispered, You are

alone, as I h

nd held back the tears. I would not give this hall, these

's next words

ilver coins will be transferred to th

mach d

away-for handing over the girl they had starved

e a warm meal without first making me scrub for it, and

livestock, a thin

g, pale fingers and smiling. She would call it compensation,

it to

and twelve: the day they put a pr

. The hall fell quiet, every wolf and every held breath

accept t