The leader held my gaze a moment longer.
Then she inclined her head once.
It wasn’t a gesture of submission, but of accord.
Behind us, the wind shifted, and somewhere beyond the ridge, something moved closer.
My birthmark cooled as if it somehow agreed with my decision, or maybe it was just my nerves feeling frayed, and all parts of me were finally giving up.
The walk back felt longer without Caleb beside us. The uncertainty of the orcs gnawed at me, and so much depended on what the goblins brought back. Would it be weeks, months, or longer before the orcs could return? And what about the shifters? Caleb spoke of the orcs' unrest, but I could feel the shifters as well. I noticed their extra patrols and paces.
As we walked, Keegan kept pace at my side, close enough that our arms brushed every few steps. Nova and Ardetia followed just behind, quiet and thoughtful.
We didn’t speak at first, but Keegan broke the silence.
“Do you trust him?” Keegan’s gaze caught mine.
I didn’t need clarification, but I decided to say my cousin’s name anyway.
“Caleb.” I pressed my lips together and glanced up at the maple canopy. The limbs still clutched the leaves as if fall hadn’t arrived.
“Yes. I’m learning to,” I said finally.
And that was the truth of it. He’d been part of the pack that turned their backs on my father. They listened to Malore, not their own instincts.
But they were here now.
“They’re learning a new way.”
Keegan glanced at me. “That’s not the same as trust.”
“No,” I agreed. “It isn’t.”
“I wish I had your sense of trust and loyalty, Maeve. I really do, but I just…” He stopped and looked at me as Ardetia and Nova continued on.
“I know he followed Malore,” I continued. “It was Caleb’s pack. He believed in that structure. He believed in the strength that Malore defined. It kills me to think they made my father an outcast.”
“Your father paid for that,” Keegan said quietly.
“Yes.”
The word carried more history than I intended.
“But now Caleb is their leader, and he is choosing differently. There comes a point when, after asking for a change, we actually learn to accept it.”
It was hard for me to even say the words. My father had been shunned. He’d been pushed aside and labeled wrongly for not fitting the mold. Caleb had been part of that world and part of that decision.
But he wasn’t the architect.
Yet, he wasn’t innocent either. It was hard not to wonder why he hadn’t stopped it.
“I don’t forget that,” I said. “I don’t think I ever can.”
We started to walk again.
“He’s not excusing Malore. He’s not clinging to the old hierarchy just because it’s familiar.” I wanted to believe my own words.
“That doesn’t erase it,” Keegan said carefully.
