“How bad?”
“It’s not too deep.” I looked down at it. “I’m okay.”
His jaw tightened.
“It’s dead?” I asked, mostly because I needed to hear it stated.
“Yes.”
“You’re sure.”
“I tore its head off, Katie.”
I looked over his shoulder at the slope behind him. The skinwalker’s body lay against the rock at the bottom of the incline, a dark, angular heap that was already looking less substantial than it had five minutes ago. As I watched, the outline of it was becoming less definite.
“Is it disappearing?”
“Its body disintegrates when it dies. The elemental essence disperses.” He followed my gaze. “It’s gone.”
I stared at the dissolving shape for another few seconds. My wolf instincts, which I was going to have to figure out how to be on speaking terms with, were quiet for the first time in two weeks.
“I want to burn it,” I said.
Silas looked at me. “It’s not necessary. The body disintegrates?—”
“I want to burn the lair.” I turned back to the cave entrance. “All of it. The bones and whatever else is in there. I want to burn the whole thing.”
“Katie.”
“I know it’s not necessary.” I held his gaze steadily. “I want to do it anyway.”
He looked at me for a moment, assessing. Then he nodded.
Silas found what he needed, dry wood and leaves and a rock that might have been flint. The fire was blazing within a few minutes, and I stood outside and watched until I was certain that whatever the skinwalker had left behind was gone. My wolf seemed satisfied as well.
Silas came to stand beside me, naked as he always was after a shift.
“Okay,” I said. “Now what?”
“Follow me.”
He started down the slope, moving with absolute certainty like he was navigating his own land. Which he was, I realized. The Jemez range, or at least this part of it, was clearly his territory.
I picked my way down the path behind him, wincing when loose rock found the bare soles of my feet. He stopped, looked back, and without comment crouched down in front of me.
“Get on.”
“I can walk.”
He looked at my feet and then back at my face, one eyebrow raised. “Get on.”
I climbed on.
His hands settled under my thighs and he stood without any apparent effort, then started walking. I hooked my chin over his shoulder and watched the mountains move past us as we descended. The light was shifting, the flat gray of the overcast day thinning toward a pale gold where the clouds had begun to break over the ridge to the west. The smoke from the fire rose in a straight column above us and dispersed.
For a while, neither of us said anything.
“Are you taking me toyourlair now?” I asked.
