Page 162 of Moonless

Mel takes Birdie back from me. Birdie folds against her at once, with one arm around her neck.

Keer waits while Mel gets her settled.

Then he looks at me over Colm’s head, and his eye goes straight to her mark on my neck. “You claimed her.”

My ears go back. “Yes.”

“She was your prisoner.”

I let my breath out slow. “Yes.”

Kestria steps in front of me, close enough that I have to move the sack. “Keer. I went back because I wanted to. He told me everything it means before I said yes. All of it.”

I’d have answered him myself.

His eye goes to her. “All of it.”

“The same as you and Mel.”

He looks at Mel. Mel looks straight back at him and keeps quiet, which I haven’t seen her do all day.

Keer turns back to me. Colm’s asleep on his shoulder, and he keeps his voice down. “Then you don’t die.”

“I’ve managed two hundred years.”

His eye goes to Kestria, then comes back to me and stays. “Two hundred.”

I shrug. “And some.”

Keer growls and takes a step toward me, Colm and all. “You’re over two hundred years old, and you’re with my little sister—”

“Keer.” Mel’s free hand lands on his arm. “You’ve got twenty years on me, and I didn’t hear you complain.”

Keer closes his eye and takes a long breath, Colm lifting and settling with it on his shoulder. When he opens it again, he’s looking at me, not at Mel. “Manage longer.”

He waits until I nod, and I don’t make him wait long.

Then he looks at Kestria. “Sleep.”

“You too.”

He bends his head toward her, and she kisses his cheek. Eskan lifts his head for a kiss too.

She gives him one, then brushes her fingers through Colm’s hair. “Goodnight, all of you.”

I shift the sack farther behind my hip and pick up the bow with everything still tied to it. I carry it in my left hand, with the long claws clear of the string.

“Goodnight,” I tell them.

Mel waves with her free hand as Keer turns beside her.

Kestria takes my right hand, and we walk into her house.

Epilogue

Nugget’s under the table again, working through the crumbs around Mel’s feet, and Keer Jr. is right behind her with his eye on Rauk. He’s had it on Rauk since we sat down.

Good luck with that, Keer Jr.