Keer killed Tovar.
The pack is silent. The whole clearing. Nobody ismoving. Maren is still on the ground beside Vidar. The wolves who were going to lift the body are frozen where they stand. Kestria is two paces away with her hand at her mouth.
Keer pulls back into himself. I watch it happen. The hand reshaping. The teeth retracting.
He looks at the pack.
He doesn't say anything.
The pack doesn't say anything back.
He kneels.
His hand is on my face. The hand is human again but it's still warm with Tovar's blood and that's what's on my cheek now, that's the warmth I can feel, blood from his hand on my skin and—
"Melori."
I can't answer.
"Look at me."
I'm looking at him. I think I am. My eyes are open. The ceiling of sky is still there. He’s in the middle of it.
"Are you hurt?"
The cold at my collarbone is real. The cold is a fact. Other things are not facts right now.
"Melori."
"He cut me." My voice doesn't sound like my voice.
His eye drops to it.
He breathes out. One long breath.
Then he's lifting me.
I don't help. My body is in his arms and I'm watching the sky tilt. His arm is under my knees and his other arm is at my back. Cedar. Iron. The iron is Tovar.
"Kestria."
Her voice answers. I don't catch the words.
"With me. Now."
He's walking. Each step rocks me a little. The pack is silent on either side of us. I feel them watching but I don't look. I don't think I could look. My eyes have decided to stay on his throat. The pulse there. Steady. Faster than usual but steady.
"Council in an hour." He doesn't look at anyone when he says it. "The body stays where it is until I come back."
Nobody answers.
We're moving past the workspace. Past the fire pit. Past the path that goes to my dwelling. Past it. He's not taking me to my dwelling.
His.
I haven't been here.
I know which one is his because I've watched him come and go. The one that sits a little above the others. The one nobody walks past unless they have a reason. He carries me up the slope and Kestria's footsteps are behind us and I close my eyes because the tilting is making my stomach cramp.
