Prologue
Edda’s POV
Garrick moved the chair before I could sit.
I stopped beside it.
“Not that one,” he said.
The chair faced Torin’s desk. It was the same chair everyone used when they came to explain a missed shift or request permission to leave the territory.
Garrick turned it slightly toward the window.
Only then did I see the split in the wooden back.
“Your coat would catch,” he explained.
“Oh.”
My fingers loosened around the cuff I had been holding closed.
Briony watched from beside the fireplace.
Torin did not look up from the paper in front of him.
“Sit down, Edda.”
I sat.
The office smelled of cedar polish and wet wool. Someone had put fresh logs on the fire. My clothes were still damp from the washhouse, and the warmth made the skin across my shoulders prickle.
Torin finished reading.
“Did you enter the eastern storehouse yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“After you were expressly told not to?”
“I was told not to collect anything without authorization.”
“Answer what I asked.”
“I am trying to.”
His eyes lifted.
Beside the fireplace, Briony lowered her gaze.
I knew that movement. It usually meant she had already told him something about my temper.
Garrick remained standing.
“Who authorized the collection?” he asked.
“Briony.”
“That is not true,” she said immediately.
I looked at her.
She looked back without difficulty.
“You asked me whether the clinic needed blankets,” she continued. “I said I believed they did. That is very different from giving you permission to enter a restricted building.”
“You gave me the key.”
“I gave you the washhouse key.”
“The washhouse key has a blue cord.”
“You were distracted.”
“No,” I said. “I wasn’t.”
Torin set the paper down.
“Enough.”
The word pressed against me with the familiar weight of his rank. My back straightened before I could stop it.
Garrick glanced at him.
“She hasn’t finished answering.”
“I have heard the answer.”
“You’ve heard two different answers.”
“And I know which person has repeatedly disregarded instructions.”
My mouth went dry.
“Which instructions?” Garrick asked.
Torin’s expression hardened. “You have the disciplinary reports.”
“I have summaries. I’m beginning to think I should have asked for more.”
Briony crossed to Torin’s desk.
“This is becoming unpleasant.”
“It was unpleasant when she arrived,” Garrick said.
She ignored him.
“Torin, I told you I didn’t want a scene. I only wanted the missing supplies accounted for.”
I stared at the paper beneath his hand.
“Missing?”
Torin leaned back.
“Four wool blankets. Two sealed dressings. A bottle of antiseptic.”
“They went to the clinic.”
“The clinic denies receiving them.”
For a moment, I could only hear the fire.
Then I said, “Who did you ask?”
Briony’s fingers settled on the edge of the desk.
“Edda.”
“Who?”
“The clinic supervisor,” Torin answered.
“Mrs. Pell?”
“Yes.”
“She wasn’t there. Her daughter had her baby yesterday. She left before noon.”
Nobody spoke.
“I gave everything to Nessa,” I continued. “She signed the collection sheet.”
Briony sighed.
“The sheet you conveniently failed to return.”
“I put it in your tray.”
“No, you didn’t.”
Garrick held out his hand to Torin.
“The report.”
Torin left it on the desk.
“Garrick.”
“The report, please.”
After a pause, Torin passed it over.
Garrick read it once. Then again.
“Briony, you wrote that the supplies never reached the clinic.”
“That was the information available to me.”
“From Mrs. Pell?”
“Yes.”
“When did you speak to her?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“At the clinic?”
Briony’s mouth tightened.
“I don’t remember precisely where.”
“You remembered enough to recommend a theft finding.”
Torin stood.
“You will be careful how you speak to her.”
Garrick lowered the report.
“Then ask the question yourself.”
The silence that followed was so complete I heard water strike the hearth from the hem of my skirt.
Torin looked down.
“You could at least have changed before coming here.”
“The runner said immediately.”
“You might have used some judgment.”
I looked at my hands.
A small patch of skin had opened beside my thumbnail. I tucked it beneath my other hand.
Garrick noticed.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Edda.”
“The washhouse press sticks.”
Torin exhaled impatiently.
“Must we examine every scratch?”
“No,” I said.
The answer came out too quickly.
Garrick’s face changed.
He did not ask again.
Instead, he turned slightly away from us. His attention settled somewhere beyond the room, and I knew he had opened a mind-link.
Briony moved.
“Who are you contacting?”
“Nessa.”
“There is no need to interrupt medical staff over blankets.”
“You brought an accusation of theft to the Alpha.”
“I brought a concern.”
He lifted the paper.
“You recommended seven days of restricted meals and confinement outside working hours.”
My stomach tightened.
Seven days.
I had only finished the last restriction that morning.
Torin glanced at me, then at Garrick.
“Recommendations are mine to approve.”
“Have you approved this one?”
“That depends on whether she can give me a straight answer.”
“I gave you one,” I said.
His gaze snapped back to me.
My heart began to pound.
I pressed my palms together beneath the desk where he could not see.
“I entered the storehouse with the key Briony gave me. I collected the items she listed. I delivered them to Nessa. I returned the key and the signed sheet.”
Briony shook her head.
“You become very certain when someone is defending you.”
“I was certain before he came.”
“Watch your tone,” Torin said.
Something inside me went still.
It was not courage. Courage would have felt stronger.
I was tired enough to hear him clearly.
“What tone would you believe?”
Garrick stopped moving.
Torin stared at me.
I wished I had not said it. Then I wished I had said it months ago.
“If I cry, you say I’m trying to influence you,” I continued. “If I don’t, you say I have no remorse. If I explain, I’m arguing. If I stay quiet, I’m admitting it.”
“Edda,” Briony said softly, “nobody wants to punish you.”
I looked at the paper in Garrick’s hand.
“You wrote down how.”
A knock sounded.
“Come in,” Garrick called.
Nessa entered carrying a narrow ledger. She had a pencil caught in her hair and a stain on one sleeve.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’ve only got a minute.”
Torin’s eyes moved to the ledger.
“You received supplies yesterday?”
“From Edda? Yes.”
“All of them?”
Nessa opened the book.
“Four blankets, two dressing packs, one antiseptic. Signed at three twenty.”
Briony stepped closer.
“Then there has obviously been a misunderstanding.”
Nessa looked at her.
“I told you that this morning.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Briony’s expression barely altered.
“You said you would check.”
“No. I checked while you waited.”
Torin put both hands on his desk.
“Briony?”
“I was concerned about the authorization.”
Garrick glanced at the report.
“You wrote this after breakfast.”
“I don’t see why the exact time matters.”
“Because she had already told you the supplies were accounted for.”
Nessa shut the ledger.
“Is that all? I have someone waiting.”
“Yes,” Garrick said. “Thank you.”
When the door closed, Torin turned toward Briony.
“Why didn’t you amend the report?”
“I intended to speak with you.”
“You did speak with me.”
“Privately.”
“You told me she had stolen clinic supplies.”
Briony’s eyes shone.
“I told you I was worried. I have been trying to manage responsibilities nobody trained me for, and now Garrick is treating me as though I deliberately—”
“Did you give Edda the key?” Garrick asked.
She looked at Torin.
He waited.
At last she said, “She may have misunderstood which building I meant.”
“The key either opens the storehouse or it doesn’t.”
“I cannot remember every small thing.”
I stood.
The chair scraped behind me.
Torin’s attention returned at once.
“I haven’t dismissed you.”
“I know.”
“Then sit.”
My knees bent.
I hated that most—the little movement before thought, the obedience fear had taught my body.
I caught the back of the chair.
Garrick came to stand beside me.
“She can remain standing.”
Torin’s jaw tightened.
“You are very close to forgetting your position.”
“No,” Garrick said. “I’ve been remembering it.”
Briony wiped beneath one eye.
“Look at what this has become.”
I looked at her hand, then at Torin.
“Is the punishment withdrawn?”
He frowned.
“The accusation is being reviewed.”
“You know the supplies arrived.”
“There remains the question of unauthorized entry.”
I could not feel the heat of the fire anymore.
Garrick laid the report on the desk.
“No restriction will be entered while the facts are disputed.”
“That is my decision.”
“Then make it.”
Torin looked at him for a long time.
Finally, he said, “The restriction is suspended.”
Suspended.
Something that could be lowered over me again.
I nodded because I did not trust myself with another word.
At the door, Briony spoke.
“Edda, I hope you understand I was only trying to protect the pack.”
My hand stopped on the latch.
I waited for Torin to say something.
He did not.
So I opened the door.
Garrick followed me into the corridor and closed it behind us.
For several steps, neither of us spoke.
Then he said, “Have you eaten?”
“Breakfast.”
“What did you have?”
I kept walking.
“Edda.”
“Bread.”
“How much?”
I stopped beside the stairwell.
He waited without coming closer.
“One piece.”
His eyes closed briefly.
“I thought the kitchen restrictions ended yesterday.”
“They ended this morning.”
“I signed the end date for yesterday.”
I looked back at the office door.
From inside came Briony’s quiet voice, too low for an ordinary human to hear.
“You saw how she spoke to me.”
My chest hurt.
Deep inside, where I had spent years hoping for an answer, there was only that distant, buried warmth.
I did not call to it.
I could not bear to frighten it farther away.
Garrick moved into my line of sight.
“Come downstairs,” he said. “We’ll get you something hot.”
“And afterward?”
He took a breath.
“Afterward, you tell me which restrictions you were actually given.”
“For how long?”
His face grew very still.
“All of them,” he said.
I held the banister until my fingers stopped shaking.
Then I went downstairs with him.
