When Grady came back, he crossed to the opposite wall, slid something, and then a blast of arctic air flushed into the room. Shivering, I wrapped the blanket tighter around me. His stick clomped along the floor toward me like a third leg, and then he stopped and lifted the blanket.
"No peeking," I warned him.
He grunted. "You have nothing I haven't seen before." He tossed another blanket at me, which of course smacked me in the face. "Shit. Sorry."
Yeah, he really sounded like it, too, with the hint of a laugh underneath his gruff voice.
Asshole.
I scrambled to unfold the new blanket, but before I did, the cold air assaulted my bare skin. Goose bumps pebbled my entire body, as well as the prickling awareness of a stare. He was watching me for just a moment before I frantically covered myself up again.
I shivered into the warmth of the blanket while I tried to shrivel him in size with the force of my glare. "Enjoy the show?"
He laughed, an odd, unexpected sound that made me jump again, especially for someone who usually sounded like they were about to rip out someone's throat. He crossed to the window again, his limp much more pronounced. No clomp of the stick. Was he using it to carry the blanket? He wasn't a wolf, though. Why couldn't he touch the wolfsbane? After a moment, he shut the window then left the room without a word.
I relaxed into the bed only slightly, remembering the large wolf I may or may not have seen before I passed out in the Crimson Forest. It had scared the other wolves away, like it had wanted to help me. But why when I could've been food? Archer had said that Grady had found me in the forest, but neither had offered up any more information. Grady didn't strike me as the kind who saved people, but bless his seemingly dead, rotted-out heart anyway for doing so. There was more to that story. And to why he’d refused to touch wolfsbane.
There was also more to my brain since half of it must've spilled out in the forest. Where the hell had that hallucination come from about seeing through Sasha's eyes? And through the big wolf in the forest. Both had seemed so vivid, so real. Something that extraordinary didn't just happen. Not in the real world and certainly not to me.
I slid my hand underneath my pillow to the package, taking strength from the promise it offered. I would deliver it and explain to Gabriel why it was late. I had to, just as soon as I was upright.
Aconitum was wolfsbane. The bane of wolves.
Even if it killed wolves so I could feed my family, that would mean fewer of them in the future trying to split me apart like a wishbone.
Chapter 4
“Idon’t suppose one of you would mind checking in on my family?” The note of hope in my voice matched the worry that they’d say no.
I’d been here five days, and even though I was sleeping and resting instead of falling out of bed, I was healing much too slowly. The wind howled outside and pressed between the cabin’s cracks. Fresh snow battered the windowpanes harder with every second closer to winter. Jade and Lee likely had enough food to survive for a few weeks, but without Baba’s payment to help support them, they would starve. Jade wasn’t as good a shot as I was, and Baba… Well, I didn’t even know if he was alive.
“Why does your family need checking on?” Archer asked from my bedside.
Grady was here too. He’d limped in after I called for Archer, as I’d thought Archer might be the one to ask because he seemed like he had a heart. Grady… Well, I could feel his anger clinging to him like a second skin, could feel his stare burning through the back of my skull.
“My baba was shot,” I said, purposely leaving out any mention of the package. “I live in Margin’s Row, the easternmost cabin, and we also look out for the kids next door to us, make sure they have food and stuff since their parents died.”
“Why can’t they take care of themselves?” Grady demanded.
“They’re young, younger than I am. Lee has a disability, and Jade has to take care of him.” I bit my lip, then added, “And my baba. She’ll be taking care of him too.”
“Margin’s Row…” Archer said and then paced away. “On the edge of the Crimson Forest.” A chill edged his voice, an understandable one since I never wanted to travel into those woods again either.
“There’s another way,” Grady said.
I stared hard in the direction of his voice. Was he actually considering going? “Yes, but it’s many miles out of the—”
“I’ll put food on the porch, but I speak to no one.” He stomped out, the thud of his walking stick so loud, it seemed like he took issue with the floor.
I blinked after him, my chin dangling to my lap. “What just happened?”
“He’s…going out anyway.”
“I didn’t expect him to go.”
“Honestly? Me neither.”
Then why had Grady volunteered? Surely he wasn’t planning on walking there through the snow, not with his limp. That would take ages.
