Page 64

I went quickly, finding my way to the village easily. When I saw the dark forms of the huts, I slowed, edging towards ours.

No—his. I cursed myself.

It was strange to be back after two weeks away. Part of me felt like it had been ages. Another part felt like only yesterday I had been stalking through these streets.

When I reached the door, I took a deep breath. Ease it open, take the axe, ease it shut. That was all I needed to do. Easy. It would be but a moment.

There were no lights coming through the window, and I could hear no sounds from inside. I wrapped my palm around the knob and turned it, slow and steady. No sound. I edged the door forward. Perfectly quiet. But when I reached for the axe, I found it was missing from its home on the wall.

Damn.

Roan had always been so particular about putting his tools exactly where they belonged. Where was it?

I wrestled with myself right there in the doorway, uncertain of what to do next. But Ihadto have that axe. I couldn’t go back to the forest without it. I needed it for now, and I needed it for when I joined the Godless. I needed to be able to take care of myself.

I sharpened my resolve. I could do this. I had to.

I looked deeper into the space before me. The moon proved to give just enough light as my eyes adjusted. I could make out the table, the ladder to the loft, and the cold hearth. No fire. That struck me as stunningly stupid. On a cold night like this? I would have had it roaring, and I found myself yearning for a fire right then and there, in a tightly sealed hut instead of the drafty hovel on the island. Oh, the comforts of home. How had I forgotten?

Focus.

I scanned the floorboards for Goose but didn’t see him. Relief swept through me at having been given at least one blessing tonight. He was likely with the pack, and it would make sneaking around without being caught much easier.

Carefully, I moved inside, leaving the door slightly ajar behind me.

It was a shock to see what a mess the place was. I thought he’d have cleared my junk out by now, but I could see all my things still in their places, almost like I’d never left. But it was more than just that. He’d gone and made messes all on his own. Roan. The same person who hadn’t left out so much as a sock since I’d met him now had boots strewn across the floor, dishes piled on the edge of the table, clothes hanging off chairs, and were those mead bottles? There were several—all empty—scattered around the place he’d always sat.

And for a moment, I wondered if he’d switched huts.

But no—that was the scarf Rahv had knitted him hanging by the door. This was his hut still, and he was here.

My gaze darted up to the loft. Then I heard it. The sound of deep breathing—coming from my bed.

My heartbeat picked up inside my chest. He was in my bed. My eyes caught on the lines of his shoulder, highlighted by the moonlight through the window in the back. I could see the steady rise and fall of his chest, and I knew I was too close. But there was the axe. It was lying on the floor—unthinkable. I could not imagine a world in which Roan Faasval would leave a tool like that discarded and underfoot.

I took a quiet step, then another. I focused on the axe. I tried to keep myself calm. But my eyes kept straying back to him. In my bed.

Settle down, I told myself.All that matters is the axe.

Not the mess, uncanny as it was. Not the empty bottles, not him in my bed.

I only needed the axe.

And I might have gotten it, if only I’d kept my attention off him. But I didn’t. From where I stood, my heart so loud I thought it could wake him up, I spied another person in bed beside him. And all the good sense flew out of my head.

I was shock and rage and heartbreak all at once. Not only had he gotten himself a girl in the brief span of two weeks, but he’d taken her intomybed. Forget what I’d thought before about this hut being his now and not mine. My mattress was still on the floor, and he shouldn’t have brought a girl into it.

Gods be damned. How could he?

I should have left, but I was a fool. I had to see, had to know if it was Runa or not, so I crept closer when I should have been creeping away. His bare arm was wrapped around her, and I bit the inside of my cheek. I could see his shoulder, his collar bone–gods, was he completely naked?–but the girl was a dark swirl of hair, and I couldn’t find her face in the shadows.

I need to leave, I told myself. I should get the axe and go because it doesn’t matter who she is.

It was half-hearted. I didn’t even try to pull myself away. I had to know who she was.

But then my eyes adjusted, and the picture became clear. Suddenly, I knew exactly who I was looking at, and my heart all but fell out of my chest. There was no girl in that bed.

It was my dog.