Chapter 74

“Don’t you think I know that?” he asked in a whisper. “If I go and you return home, maybe you can live a good life, a full life. Find someone else to love. I could do this if it meant that.”

Akton scowled.

“But I can’t,” he said, and Talfryn didn’t reply. They waited there awhile at the crossroads, silently, knowing what the next step was and not wanting to take it. Akton reached for his canteen, had a drink of water. Talfryn wouldn’t look at him.

It was definitely noon now, and the weather was hot, well into summer. Akton thought of how long he’d been gone, how long his family had assumed him dead. His little niece who could have been his but was his brother’s instead—he hadn’t wanted to pass along what he’d thought of then as a shifter’s curse. His work around the place, how someone else must be managing it in his absence. The smell of crops growing, leaves warm from sun. The noise of young hens, guard dogs, the one-two-three-pause step of the deer in the woods.