Page 69 of Salt Between the Wolves

The thought settled over her with startling clarity.

Not tomorrow, not eventually, but tonight.

Her fingers moved slowly through the mare's mane.

I'm leaving.

She never spoke the words aloud because she didn't need to; the truth of them filled the stable all the same.

The mare nudged her shoulder as if sensing her unease, and Eira smiled faintly before pressing her forehead briefly against the horse's neck.

When she finally stepped back, she felt strangely calm.

The fear remained, and so did the sadness, yet beneath both lay certainty.

For the first time in her life, the road ahead belonged to her alone.

She had just turned toward the stable entrance when footsteps echoed softly outside.

Eira looked up and saw a figure emerge from the darkness beyond the doorway.

For a moment neither of them moved.

Soren stopped as abruptly as she did, and although the surprise on his face vanished almost immediately beneath the familiar control he wore as naturally as breathing, she had seen it before it disappeared.

Silence settled between them, neither uncomfortable nor easy, but merely familiar.

The bond stirred the moment their eyes met, and the sensation caught her off guard.

Once it had felt like longing, then it had felt like hope, and now it felt like an old wound that refused to heal.

Soren's gaze moved briefly to the stall behind her before returning to her face.

"You should be inside."

The words were simple and ordinary enough that Eira almost laughed.

"So should you."

For a heartbeat something flickered across his expression—not amusement, but something softer—before it vanished again.

The silence returned, and neither seemed willing to leave or speak.

Finally Soren glanced toward the fortress beyond the stable doors.

"I leave at first light."

Eira nodded.

It would be another patrol, another council, or another duty; she didn't ask which because it no longer seemed to matter.

"I see."

The distance between them felt larger than the space that physically separated them.

Weeks ago she would have demanded an explanation, but now she simply accepted the information.

Soren appeared to notice.