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Her breath goes out against my brow. She doesn’t say anything, and she keeps her hand where it is.
Chapter 23
Two mornings since I put my hand on his face, and we’re both pretending I didn’t. He’s been out for wood since before I woke up, and my legs still hate me when I stand up.
Okay. Fine. Nobody has to talk about it. We can keep the whole nothing-even-happened routine going.
Rauk comes back in through the passage with the wood stacked in his good arm.
He stops just inside, and I lower my spoon. “What?”
He lifts his head toward the vent above the passage. His ears go two different ways, one at the vent and one at me.
“Your brother and the other wolf are closer.”
I set the bowl down before I spill it.
“How close?”
His ear’s still at the vent. “Their scent’s coming on the wind. Stronger than yesterday.”
I can’t smell a thing.
“You’re sure it’s him?”
“The same male who stood in front of the woman at the field.”
Keer. I wipe my palm down my shirt.
“The other one’s probably Axan. The one I told you he’d bring.”
Rauk sets the wood down by the hearth without letting it touch his bad arm. He’s washed the blood out of the fur, but when a stick slips, he grabs it with his other hand.
Must be nice. I’ve had his smoke in my shirt since the field, and I haven’t had a real wash since I got here. Ugh. I can smell myself, and that’s saying something with this nose.
“Have you seen them?”
“No.”
His claw marks are still white on the wall by the passage, and he’s still getting down onto his bedding with a hand on the wall.
“Are they on the mountain?”
“I haven’t heard anyone on the slope.”
He watches me while I pull the bowl back into my lap.
My brother’s out there. He got one noseful of me at the field and he’s followed it this far, and I know the face he makes when he comes back with nothing. Poor Axan.
I press the spoon against a piece of root until it breaks.
“They’ll keep looking.”
“I know.” He sits on his hearthstone, leaving the wood where it is. I get the mouthful down, which takes a couple of tries with my throat still raw.
If Keer finds the entrance, he’ll come straight through it for me, and Rauk will be waiting on this side. I’ve seen what he does to wolves who come at him.
Don’t find it, Keer.
