Page 90 of Iron Beneath the Snow

“And did we?”

He looked back toward the courtyard, where a pair of younger wolves had resumed sparring.

“We did,” he said. “Because you didn’t hesitate.”

“You watched all of it,” she said.

“I watch anything that comes that close to the walls,” he replied, as though that required no further explanation. “That includes you.”

“And what did you see?” she asked, the question carrying more curiosity now than tension.

He didn’t answer immediately, but when he did, there was no hesitation in the conclusion itself.

“Someone who didn’t freeze,” he said, “and didn’t rush past what the moment required.”

She let out a quiet breath, and with it something in her shoulders eased, the earlier tightness loosening just enough to be noticeable.

“That sounds almost reasonable,” she said.

“It usually is,” he answered.

The exchange came easily, without the strain that had marked every conversation she’d had since the attack.

Below, the younger wolves continued their sparring, their movements controlled, the rhythm of steel kept deliberately contained so it never broke into chaos.

After a moment, he spoke again.

“You move with us,” he said, not as a question, but as something already observed. “Not against.”

“That surprises you?” she asked.

“It confirms something,” he replied.

“And what is that?”

“That you’re not trying to force your place here,” he said. “You’re finding where it holds.”

She hadn’t expected that answer, and for a moment she didn’t respond, turning it over instead.

“You don’t seem concerned by that,” she said eventually.

He shifted his weight slightly, as if the answer required no more effort than the question.

“I serve Ironfang,” he said. “If you’re standing with us when it matters, that’s enough.”

There was nothing layered beneath it, nothing that needed to be read twice to be understood.

The clarity of it eased something in her, not because it resolved anything, but because it didn’t try to reshape it.

The tension she had carried out from the infirmary softened further, no longer pressing at the edges of every thought.

The torches along the wall flickered as the last of the daylight slipped away, the courtyard easing into the steadier rhythm of night.

“First Winter is coming soon,” Riven said.

She turned slightly toward him.

“What does that involve?”