Chapter Nine

Telling the Truth

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The second day of travel was harder than the first.

Lunar's feet had blistered. Her legs ached. And the gruel she'd grown up on hadn't prepared her for the strange, heavy food Kaelen hunted and cooked over open fires.

She was exhausted. She was sore. She was—

"Hungry," she admitted, as they stopped to rest by a stream.

Kaelen raised an eyebrow. "You ate two hours ago."

"That was hours ago." Lunar's stomach growled, loud and accusing. "I'm a growing witch."

"You're nineteen years old."

"Exactly. Growing."

Kaelen laughed—a real laugh, low and warm—and Lunar felt a flush of pride at making him do it.

"Alright, growing witch." He stood, brushing off his hands. "Let's see what we can find."

He returned twenty minutes later with a brace of rabbits, already cleaned, and set about building a fire. Lunar watched him work, fascinated despite herself. He moved with an economy she'd never seen—every motion purposeful, efficient, beautiful.

"Where did you learn to do that?" she asked.

"Learn to cook?"

"Learn to survive." Lunar gestured at the forest around them. "This. All of this. You move through it like it's nothing."

Kaelen was quiet for a moment. "I grew up in the wilderness," he said finally. "After my mother died, my father sent me to live with the old wolves—the ones who remembered the ways before the treaty. They taught me to hunt, to track, to survive."

"Why did your father send you away?"

Kaelen's jaw tightened. "Because I was the Alpha's heir, and the pack was at war. He wanted me safe."

Lunar studied him. There was something in his voice—a flatness, a careful distance—that she recognized. It was the same way she'd talked about the temple, before she'd learned to feel the grief beneath it.

"Did you ever see him again?" she asked softly.

"No." Kaelen's voice was quiet. "He died when I was seventeen. The war took him, like it took everything else."

Lunar felt her heart clench. She moved closer, sitting beside him by the fire.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I know what it's like to lose the people you love."

Kaelen looked at her, his golden eyes soft in the firelight.

"I know you do," he said. "That's why I—" He stopped. Shook his head. "Never mind."

"No." Lunar reached out, touching his arm. "Tell me."

Kaelen was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, "That's why I was so desperate to get to you. When the moon started screaming your name, I knew you were out there, alone, in danger. And I couldn't—I couldn't lose someone else."

Lunar felt the tears sting her eyes.

"You didn't lose me," she whispered. "You found me."

Kaelen looked at her, and something in his eyes softened.

"Yeah," he said, and his voice was rough. "I found you."

They sat together by the fire, the rabbits roasting, the forest settling around them.

And for a moment, the weight of their losses felt a little lighter, shared between them.

*

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