Page 19 of Moonless

I leave the cup where it is and pull the cloak higher with my good hand. “You were here before.”

“Yes.”

He stays crouched where he is, claws hanging loose over his knee. One ear tips toward me and doesn’t move back.

“You told me I was inside.” My voice cracks on the last word, and I have to swallow before I can look at him again.

He looks around the chamber, then back at me. “You are.”

I huff through my nose. “That clears it up.”

I push myself higher on my right elbow. He lowers a hand behind my back, waiting while I get upright, then folds the spare fur against the wall for me to lean on. My head swims a little, so I accept the cup without arguing.

The water’s cool. I drink too fast and have to stop.

His face is broad and human under all that fur, with a blunt nose dark across the bridge. The heavy brow shades eyes so dark I can’t separate the pupils. Fine lines spread from their outer corners, and there’s silver in the dark fur along his jaw. Older than Keer, then, but not by much.

Both ears are small, rounded, and set high, their edges furred. One turns toward the fire when the wood cracks. The other stays pointed at me.

I lower the cup. “How long have I been here?”

“Since the night before last.”

I stop with the cup halfway to the floor.

“All of yesterday?”

“You slept.”

The birthday was three days ago. Mel will have put the tables away, and my clothes will still be hanging inside my door.

Keer felt the bolt. So did Axan. Fuck.

Two nights of nothing from me, and he’ll have taken the search straight down that trail, straight under the man I never saw—

I take another drink, smaller this time, and set the cup down.

“Where did you find me?”

“Beside the river.”

“Anyone else there?”

“No.”

“Men? On either bank?”

His ears turn fully toward me. “I found you alone.”

I look at his hands again. The claws are still there. He hasn’t drawn them back to handle the cup or touch me.

“You took the bolt out.”

“Yes.”

“And carried me here.”

He lays the folded cloth beside my hip. A shirt, with a narrow leather belt looped around it.