Her Match, His Fire

shoulder and Ingrid ahead of me, and the whol

hat smell. Mattias had the stove going and the big pot on, and the table was crowded with Council men eating my brea

ndow and sat down across from her with my back to the Council m

at for half an hour with my nose full of things I do not

ave been on the water since I was small. My boat came apart on the north shore four nights ago in

r a long moment. "You

a

røy. There are nine of the

er came from the mainland and married into it, and that the mainland

d. "What was your f

oot ketch with a grey hull and a bad starboard pump, and she went dow

ker, no reaching for detail. She was a woman who had learned how to be from somewhere and had practiced it until it fit

ver Ingrid like a coat and eve

ld, steady hate, and my wolf sat i

a Vestad. Old Arn Vestad, on the n

e, in a manner of speaking. He said I should get away from Værø

and gave her the flat Alpha look that means w

e tower," Runa sai

could not light it," Ingrid said. "He would have sat there with his matches until the m

ou know

ow bo

a said, and her voice

uietened. He put his gloves back on, one and then the ot

will give my men a list of every wolf in the pack and where each one sleeps. The lamp register will be surrendered t

r protecti

have no boat of your own, Alpha, so you cannot send her anywhere, and I will not

suddenly empty of everything except me and Run

to the window and sto

eping in our bunks and a stranger in our tower and a lamp that goes out when nobod

bor with the wind coming off the water and the stock

ut the bond,

is no

ave seen you at your father's funeral. I have never once known you to lie to me before this week, and now you have lied to me twice in two

se of the lighthouse, her braid over her shoulder, and she was standing there lookin

the hook on the wall behind the door wh

ch one. Then she looked up and saw me on the gallery, a

the whole

g her eyes off Ingrid. "What is