“Why?” I asked.
“We have to look broodingly over the city at least once a week,” he said. “It’s in the contract.”
“I didn’t sign a contract,” I said.
“You did,” Bishop called from the stairs. “You just didn’t read it.”
From up on the rooftop, you could see a good stretch of the city from the river cutting through to the cluster of council buildings to the humbler districts in between.
Steam rose from vents and chimneys. Lamps blinked on one by one as the light faded, turning the streets into veins of amber and shadow.
We settled in a loose circle, me on an old crate, legs drawn up; Elias leaning against the wall; Griff sitting cross-legged at my feet; Nox perched on the edge like he might leap off just to see if he could land without breaking anything; Eamon with his back to the warm pipe, eyes half-closed; Bishop standing, of course, arms folded, watching the city like it was a text he was still trying to translate.
“Looks almost peaceful,” Nox mused.
“Don’t jinx it,” Eamon murmured.
“Superstitious,” Nox replied.
“Experienced,” Eamon corrected.
I let their voices wash over me, warm and familiar. The wind tugged at my hair. Somewhere below, someone laughed. Somewhere else, someone shouted that it was time for dinner.
“You did it,” Elias said after a while.
“Did what?” I asked.
“This,” he continued, gesturing. “Wolves and humans living together in harmony.”
“Wedid it,” I corrected.
“Mm,” he said. “We helped. You did the impossible parts.”
“That’s not true,” I scoffed.
Griff leaned his shoulder against my leg. “He’s right,” he said. “The Accord was your idea. You built it when it was just an idea. Now it’s a…bigthing.”
“Very eloquent,” Bishop said.
“You know what I mean,” Griff shot back. Then to me, softer, “You’re allowed to be proud of what you’ve done.”
I looked at them. At all of them.
“I am proud,” I said finally. “Of all of us. Of this. Of not being dead, which is also nice.”
“That’s the spirit,” Nox replied.
We lapsed into silence again, the comfortable kind, each of us watching the city in our own way.
Ashcroft was gone and that was a start.
There were councilors who still didn’t trust us, humans who still crossed the street when they saw a wolf coming, as wellas pockets of resistance that would have to be dealt with eventually.
I leaned back, let my head rest on the cool wall behind me, and watched the lights come on across London.
The city was still flawed, but it couldn’t pretend wolves inevitably went feral anymore.
For the first time since Skye, I let myself believe that what we’d built might last long enough for someone else to take it and keep going.
