Page 80 of Let Slip the Dogs of War

“For what?”

“For the—For not telling you about the bond.”

I almost come up short, and that makes me stumble, but I catch myself quickly. “Why didn’t you?” It’s not that we don’t have secrets from each other, though off the top of my head I can’t imagine a single thing she doesn’t know about me. But something as important as this…

“It’s not done,” she says, then looks at me and sighs. “I can’t explain it. I wasn’t supposed to know. I can’t just see a bond, not unless I’m using my magic at the time. I mean, sometimes it’s obvious, but that doesn’t mean I can see the bond itself, just—”

“Fee.”

“Sorry. I just—it’s something wolf witches can do sometimes. But we don’t talk about it. Not ever. If my parents ever found out I’d seen a bond and then told someone about it?” She pales. “You get exiled from a pack for that.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

“No, but… You’re right. I didn’t know, like, when we first met Lark or anything like that. I saw it by accident a couple of years ago. And I figured, I dunno, that he’d make a move eventually. Or you would.”

“Fat chance of that.”

“Still. I don’t know. I tried not to think about it, but it’s been tricky the past few years, and I know how much you like him and I knew you were never going to make a move and—” She shakes her head. “I thought if I got you on the apps at the café, he might finally fucking say something.”

“Really?” My voice is dry.

“I didn’t know what else to do. It’s not like there’s anyone else to talk to about it. None of the witches from the packs in London can see bonds, or at least none I’ve managed to ask. Most of them aren’t wolf witches anyway. And I can’t—Can you imagine if I’d asked my dad?”

“You could have spoken to me. Not told me, but you could have said something. Or, Jesus, even Felix.”

“Felix would have called you immediately.”

“Not if you said it was serious and related to wolves. You know that.”

She glares at me for a moment, then sighs and looks away. “I know. I just… I wanted you to have your happy ending, too.”

“What about yours?”

“What?”

“I’m not actually an idiot. You and Oisin—”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

“But you get to interfere in my life?”

She comes to a quick stop, and I’m not sure if she’s more astonished by my tone of voice or angry because she really doesn’t want to talk about Oisin. I don’t really want her to. The further we get from the castle, the more everything hurts, and it might be better that things never worked out between me and Lark, like he said, because that would make things worse now, but all I feel is that we never got a chance to be together at all.

“I—” Ophelia’s expression crumples. “I didn’t know what to do,” she says. “I fucked up. I know I did.”

And she’s hurting too, of course. She’s been fucking kidnapped, and here I am, making this about me.

“Yeah, I—I’m sorry,” I mutter. “I am. I shouldn’t have—” My breath hitches and Ophelia hugs me faster than I expect. I wrap my arms around her and swallow my tears.

Now is not the time. I can dwell when I get home.

“We’ll find a way to get you back to him,” she says fiercely, leaning back to look in my face. “I mean it. We’ll get Drew on it.”

I sniff. “Drew?”

She shrugs. “He’s going to want Lark back too, you know. I think they’re friends, even if they don’t ever really talk to each other. And what Drew wants…”

I huff a faint laugh, my eyes still stinging. “Drew gets.”