"That's backwards from every story I've ever heard."
"The stories aren't exactly written by wolves."
I laugh. Can't help it—it tears out of me, slightly unhinged. Kestria watches me with that worried expression, the guilty one, but her mouth twitches.
"This is insane," I tell her. "You know that? This is completely insane."
"I know."
"I've been living next to a pack of thirty-five werewolves for ten years and treating them with flower paste and scolding them for chewing their bandages."
"You were very firm about the bandage chewing."
"It's a hygiene issue." I tear off more bread. "Does the moonbright—the paste. It works on you. Obviously. But does it work differently than I think?"
"Moonbright's poison to us. In the wild, touching the flowers can burn. Concentrated, it can kill."
"Kill."
"That's what was on Theron's blade. Concentrated moonbright."
I look at the jar on my shelf. The paste I've been making for years. The paste I've been spreading on wolf wounds with my bare hands.
"But the paste heals you."
"Something about the way you process it. The mixing, the ratios—I don't know the details. Keer might." She shifts on the floor, careful of the wound. "All I know is wild moonbright hurts us and your paste fixes us. That's why wolves started coming to you in the first place."
"Because I accidentally invented werewolf medicine."
"Basically."
"While trying to make a nice salve for cuts."
"You're very talented."
I huff, wave a hand. "Well,yeah. We all know that. Come on."
I scrub a hand down my face. "I'm going to need a minute." I press my hand over my eyes. The bread is half-gone. My stomach is cramping around it, confused by actual food after a day and a half of nothing. "Wait. You said Keer."
"I did."
"Keer. Your brother, Keer?"
"Yes."
"The one who won't let you take certain roads. The one who grunts in three words or less. The one you complain about every single time you visit."
"Yes."
"Keer might know the details about moonbright."
"Yes."
"How?Oh—is he a healer? A WEREWOLF HEALER!" My whole body lights up. "Oh my gosh. He would know so much. How do medicines work on you? Because I've been dosingwolves with willow bark for pain and I have no idea if it's even doing anything or if I'm just giving them a tea and they're being polite. And what about the yellow flower by the stream—the one with the bitter leaves? I use it for headaches, but wolves process things differently, so does it even work? And the bone pain—fuck, the bone pain. Shifting has to hurt. I saw what your body did. That can't be pain-free. Do you have something for it? Or have you just been dealing with it? Because I have things I could try—"
"Mel."
"—and I don't know if any of them would work, but there's mullein root and there's—"
