Page 46 of Moonless
Rauk stands behind me while I try.
“I’ll run again.” I turn to face him. “You know that.”
“Yes.” Nothing in his face moves.
“Whenever I get the chance. Tomorrow, next week, whenever you stop watching.”
He waits with his hands at his sides, claws curved toward the floor.
“And if you keep me here until my shoulder heals, I’ll run faster.”
“Yes.”
I press my back against the slab, feeling its cold through the shirt.
“Then open it. Let me choose to come back.”
His gaze drops to my mouth.
“If you want me to touch you because I want to, give me somewhere else I can go.” I don’t come off the slab. “I can’t choose to stay with you while that thing’s across the passage.”
He looks at the slab above my shoulder. “You’re right.”
I wait for him to tell me where to stand.
His hands stay by his sides.
“Rauk.”
“You’re right.” He looks at me instead of the stone. “It stays shut.”
My heel presses hard against the foot of the stone.
“You can’t agree with me and leave it there.”
His eyes stay on my face. The fire crackles faintly from the chamber behind him.
“You’ve understood every word.” I don’t look away either.
“Yes.”
The scream gets out of me short and ugly. I come off the stone and slap it with my good hand, hard enough to sting.
“Argue with me!” I turn on him. “Tell me I’ve missed something. Give me one stupid reason!”
He stands there and takes it. Not even his ears move.
Yes, I’m right. No, it stays shut.
I move past him because there’s nowhere else to go.
For a while I sit at the hearth with my untouched cup between my feet. He finishes putting away the leather, then tends the pot. Once he stops beside me and looks at my shoulder. I lift the collar without being asked, and he leaves the bandage alone.
The patch of daylight gets smaller. My foot wraps are still on the hearthstone, dry since yesterday morning.
I reach for them.
He watches me pull the leather around my right foot. The tie keeps slipping off my knee while I work with one hand. I catch it, holding the folded edge down with my left thumb.
