Sara shrugs. “He was kind and fair. He maintained our boundaries. All Talon wanted was to keep us safe. He didn’t believe in expanding our territory.”
“But your father does?”
She looks up at me, her eyes suddenly like daggers. “I don’t know about that, okay? I’m just as puzzled as anyone else about how the attack came about. I know Father was close to Talon, especially towards the end. I have no idea what they talked about.”
“But you were close with Talon, too, weren’t you? And Jess?”
She nods, scraping the side of her bowl with the spoon. “I’d started to stay away from them. I knew Father was going to try and use the relationship for leverage, and I didn’t want to betray Talon. Even so, I’m pretty sure Father was using me to sway Talon into doing what he wanted.”
I can feel that we’re close to something, and I want to push straight into it.
If I were interrogating, that’s exactly what I’d do, and I’d apply brute force until my subject broke. But this is my wife, not a hostile.
I let my eyes travel over her for a moment, admiring her long, golden hair and big brown eyes, glittering with specks of gold. In any other situation, I’d worship this woman and never dare to offend her.
Having to interrogate her fucking sucks! But I have a job to do. I have to keep everyone safe.
Even though I know I should push, I just can’t bring myself to do it.
“You said you spent a lot of time with Jess in the garden,” I say. “What was your favorite thing to do there?”
“Everything,” she answers, smiling. Even though it’s a small smile, it warms her expression and blushes her cheeks pale pink. “We’d trim the herbs and set them to dry, or put the dried ones in jars to cure. She had a carefully balanced ecosystem in there to care for caterpillars and spiders. She loved moths and butterflies, and grew extra for them to eat.”
I laugh softly. “She sounds nice.”
“Nice wasn’t even the word,” Sara says, shaking her head. “She was so soft and caring. I wasn’t the only kid she invited over. This house could have been a sanctuary to many.”
“So you’re saying most of the pack wasn’t close to her?”
“No,” Sara answers. “They saw Jess and Talon as leaders, not on their level. It would have been a potential insult to get familiar with them.”
“And your alpha and luna supported this?”
“Not exactly,” she says. “Talon didn’t like to put himself above anyone. But his grandfather taught him, and his father, that a good leaderhasto put himself above the pack. It’s the only way to rule, and keep everyone safe.”
“Interesting,” I mutter, my mind roaming out into unpleasant possibilities. “To keep you safe from Eccles?”
“Yes, among other things.”
Sara puts her spoon down and stares off into the distance, and I can sense tension building in her, as if she has something she wants to say. I let the silence stretch out, hoping she’ll share.
“I suppose you think we’re paranoid,” she says. “Living up here, cut off from society. Like, we don’t even have TV.”
“But you know what TV is?”
She nods. “Even after our chosen people stopped going out to the human world, there was still an occasional trip, either for something essential like medicine, or a person just sick of living here and taking off to the human world. Most of them never came back.”
“But some did?”
She nods. “They told stories about horrible noise, overcrowding, greed, and violent crime. They said they couldn’t handle it out there. I always thought it sounded exciting, though.”
“You’d like to go?”
She just nods, looking down at her lap.
“But you’re scared to go to Eccles?”
She nods again, looking up at me. “Going into Eccles—or towards the east at all—is forbidden. Even though the rules are to never leave town, it’s a known fact that people have gone west and returned to tell the tale. Very few, though. If they got out and back in without incident, then they were considered extremely lucky.”
