Page 26 of Moonless

I fold the cloth over the rim. “I haven’t.”

She shifts to the edge of the pallet and sets her feet on the floor. Her face has gone pale around the scrape on her cheek. I put the bowl down out of the reach of her hem.

She gets upright with her hand against the wall.

“Sit.”

“I’m tired of sitting.”

That makes two of us.

I stay on one knee, close enough to reach her. She waits with her eyes on the floor, then straightens.

“You can keep saying it. That doesn’t make you right.”

Her shirt hangs crooked from the belt. She tugs the cloth free above it, using the movement to hold her left arm against her ribs.

“Whatever you are. Gulon. You don’t know my pack.”

My ears turn toward her, and I stop reaching for the bowl.

“They’ll come for me. Wolves find their own. We don’t leave each other out there to die.”

“Your people let mine die.”

She stops with her hand still at her belt.

I close my mouth, feeling an upper fang against my lip.

Her hand drops. “What?”

I pick up the bowl and stand.

“What does that mean?” She takes a step toward me. I wait until she’s steady.

“Who?” She looks up into my face. “Who did we leave?”

My ears go back. “Sit down.”

“Answer me.”

I turn toward the inner passage.

“You can’t say that and walk away.”

She follows one step farther, her bare foot scraping stone. I stop at the opening and look back. Her good hand is pressed against her shoulder now.

I keep my eyes on that hand. “That’s all I’m telling you.”

“Then you can listen. I don’t know what happened to you. I don’t even know your fucking name. You don’t get to make me answer for something you won’t explain.”

No, you don’t. The bowl fits between my palms. I keep both hands around it until she takes her hand from her shoulder.

She stays where she is.

I go around the bend with her watching me.

At the pool, I stop and listen. Her feet scrape back toward the pallet. Cloth rustles, followed by a small breath as she sits.