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Baer had been eerily quiet since the night of the fire. Once, when the elders had brought up the topic of Fenli and the wolves, he’d stood, throwing back his chair, and told them all to stand down long enough for her to make a godsdamn recovery. He’d made himself scarce since then, and I wasn’t sure why.

I packed the canoe and my things, and I made sure Esska was settled in with Fen.

“Would you shut up and go already?” she’d said when I tried to go over Fen’s medicines a second time. “I will take good care of her, I promise.”

I relented, looking back to where she lay sleeping.

“Tell her I said goodbye.”

Ess nodded. “You’ll be back in a day. Stop overreacting.”

I knew she was right.

I left for the canoe, surprised to see Baer already there and with a canoe of his own.

“We can both go in mine,” I said.

He only shook his head and climbed into his own. I should have known then.

I lead us through the water to the island of the wolves. There was no sign of them as we made our way to the hut on foot, normal for this time of day, and we made ourselves comfortable. That night, as we lay on our bedrolls, we heard their howls.

Gods, how I missed her. I ached with it. Every note they hit drove the pain deeper.

And I knew I was a fool, but I didn’t care.

Early the next morning we headed out to the cedar where Fen and I would sit and watch. I parroted the same things she’d told me on that first morning.Leave your metal behind. No axe, no knives. Don’t you dare make me regret this. Relax.

When the wolves finally came, I looked to Baer, trying to read him.

But he was unreadable.

We sat there for many hours.

When we returned to the hut, Baer told me to go home. He was going to stay. He wouldn’t listen to any arguments about it.

“Take my weapons, if you must,” he said, “but leave.”

Finally, I relented. But I damn well took every last blade he had on him.

Before I got into my canoe to head back to Fenli, my gaze caught on a tree just up from the rocky shoreline. The memory of it came back to me, that night when we’d been found, and I’d seen the carvings in the bark for the briefest of moments before being pulled back to my world falling apart.

I had forgotten.

Now I left my canoe and made my way to the base of the tree. The marks were fresh, and I knew it must have been Fen who’d etched them.

I searched the woods for wolves

but in the end

the wolf was me

A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth before I turned to go. I needed to get back to her.

I returned home, but it was many days before Baer made his way back.

“Are they—?”

He let out a gruff laugh. “They’re alive,” he said.