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Her voice was hoarse with smoke, and she tripped over her words like she often did, but she was loud and clear and sure. Anyone who thought she was mute learned the truth of the matter. And anyone who’d been debating about her in the hall earlier lowered their head in shame now.

She lifted her face to the rain and said, quieter, “And Toke will have me, too.”

The rain on her cheeks shone like his blessing, and I remembered Indi’s story, of Fenil’s birth miles from the village and how it rained as she walked back with her newborn child in her arms.

Toke’s blessing, even then, even so close to Runehall’s clan. She’d always been his.

“As for the wolves,” she continued. “We were wrong about them. They are not our com—competition or our enemies. The rumors are true. I’ve been living w-with them, like I’ve lived…with all of you. In that time, I’ve come to understand…that we are not so different, the Caed and the wolves. Devoted to our clans. To each other, those we love.”

The words lingered. She coughed again. “That’s how the wolves live,” she finally said.

“I don’t care what any—any of you think. I call an end to all of this, here and now. Toke will have me,” she said louder, and she looked up at the rain to make her point. “Maybe you don’t like that, but I won’t be moved.

“And I’d like to see you try to feed me to the wolves.”

Chapter Forty-Three

Fenli

Runehall’s clan left in the night, but not before the elder promised to never come for me again. I went to Yeshi’s. She chased her own family from her hut and washed me quickly, taking careful inventory of all my wounds. Her apprentice was the only one allowed to come and go, but Roan, Esska, and Indi waited outside. Sometimes I could hear their voices, asking how I was when the apprentice headed out, before she had the door closed.

There was a salve for my cuts and scrapes and another for the burns. Gods almighty, the burns hurt. My skin felt like it was burning long after the fire had been put out. I bit my lip until it bled, until Yeshi noticed the red that dripped from my chin and scolded me, rushing to get a piece of leather.

I bit the leather strip so hard I thought I’d bite right through.

When she finished the wrappings and said that was all she could do for me for now, I started to cry. The burns were nearly unbearable.

“But thepain,” I whispered.

She shook her head, regret in her eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

She’d already given me what painkiller she’d had.

Then she took my arm and helped me out the door, delivering me to Roan who diligently took her place.

“She needs sleep,” she said. “Tomorrow, we scrub the burns and change the bandages. It’s gonna be hell.”

The three of them led me back to my hut and worried over me until they seemed to remember that they were supposed to be letting me sleep. Indi and Esska left, and Roan poured me a cup of mead. My hands shook as I lifted it to my lips, but I drank deeply. I hoped it would help me.

But the mead was not enough.

I was up throughout the night, catching only bits of sleep before waking in a panic. There was always the pain, like my skin was still burning, and so my dreams were ones of fire as well.

“Listen,” Roan whispered, stroking the hair from my forehead while I tried to get my breathing back under control. “It’s raining.”

I heard it then, coming down in sheets against the roof.

I listened, and I let it anchor me.

Chapter Forty-Four

Roan

Ihated to leave her. I almost didn’t. But after one week, it was time to take Baer to see the wolves.

It was my one shot at getting him to understand. For her, I had to take it.