“Temporary progress.”
I nudged his arm with my elbow. “Let me enjoy the illusion for thirty seconds.”
He glanced down at me, his hazel eyes catching the warm late-afternoon light spilling across the square.
“You get thirty-five.”
I huffed a small laugh. “Generous.”
But he was already looking back out at the town again, attention shifting the way a wolf’s does when it’s responsible for keeping the forest from catching fire.
“There are still leaders out there,” he said after a moment. “Clan heads. Horde captains. People the others listen to.”
My stomach dipped a little.
“I know.”
“If we leave it like this,” he said quietly, “it won’t stay calm for long.”
He tipped his head toward the inn across the square. The windows glowed warm against the afternoon light, and the old wooden sign swayed on its chains with a soft creak every time the breeze shifted.
“We should bring them inside,” he said. “Somewhere quieter. Let people talk without half the town listening.”
“That sounds suspiciously like diplomacy.”
“I’m running out of better ideas.”
A short laugh slipped out of me.
He glanced back at the crowd, then at me again.
“Am I wrong?”
I shook my head. “No. You’re not.”
The corner of his mouth twitched, like a smile was trying to show up but thought better of it.
“I do enjoy being right,” he said.
“Oh, don’t start.”
But just as he pushed away from the wall, something shifted in the air around me.
It wasn’t a sound.
Not exactly.
More like that strange feeling when someone across a crowded room says your name, and you turn, even though you never actually heard it.
My gaze drifted down the road leading out of town before I could stop it.
And there, at the far end where the road bent toward the trees, stood a figure.
Too far away to make out clearly.
Just a shape against the edge of the woods.
Still.
