What the Smoke Saw

my eyes closed, but I could feel the ridge coming, the way the air went thin and bitter in the back of my throat. Fire ha

e headset, flat and calm. "T

e. Across from me, Wren was grinning at nothing in particular, her honey-brown hair pinned up under her helmet and

u're going to a f

ke I'm goi

e fa

re was a long orange scar running up the eastern slope, eating the timber in slow bites. I leaned out and looked down, and the world tilted the w

aught th

pen in the sun, with a low note underneath that made my wolf come awake in a single hard surge. My hands went tight on th

h again. "

ump

k on your wrist that burns when the moon gets fat. There is only the wind screaming past your helmet and the grou

when I

lden blond hair swept to the side, catching the red light of the fire, and when he turned his face up to watch me come down, I saw

g at the fire. He

ut. I took it. The spark ran from his palm into mine and up my arm and settled somewhere under my

early,"

actly o

me at the smoke, and his jaw worked. "You're on the south line. T

oll into the creek and die. The south line is where the fuel is." I pointed. "Give it an hour and it wil

sun-kissed and smooth across the cheekbones, and his eyes were the exact grey of a s

e you?"

fer. Ruth hired

idn't t

anyone anything. It

and raised his radio. "Crew, this is Dex. We have a jumper on the south line. I w

very wolf in the Bitterroot knew that name. Alpha of the Ravager Pack, keeper of

hung from his hand. "You put a l

lie. It's telling y

ng me where

s moving before I thought, one hand on his chest pushing him back toward the rock shelf, the other grabbing for the radio to call the crew off the line. He c

till, and his eyes dropped to my wrist, and then

that,"

thi

not no

and Wren laughing like a maniac while she dragged a hose. By the time we had the south line cut and the dange

h off his face and his hair was wet and pushed back,

ht about the

ually

do that

wh

It sounded like a man reading out a sentence he did not like. "Whatever happened out

hind us Wren was arguing with a sawyer about dinner, and the fire was

tand you,

door and my wolf pacing behind my ribs, and I knew, the way you know a wind s

. He did not tu

ha

is that on

r a moment he walked on into the dark, and I stood in the ash with