Page 146 of Shatter

Letters.

Hidden inside the knots, woven into the design so cleverly I'd never have seen them if he hadn't shown me.

One tucked into each loop, five in a row, spelling a word.

"Signe." He says it into my hair. "My mother's name."

My eyes sting.

He moves my finger higher, up toward the crook of his elbow, where a smaller, tighter knot holds three more letters.

"Liv." His voice goes rough. "My sister."

"You have a sister?" I lift my head and look at him.

"Had." He stares up at the ceiling fan. "Almost had."

I don't say anything.

I lay my hand flat on his chest, over his heart, and wait.

"My father rode with a club in Oslo." He says it slowly, like the words are coming up from a long way down. "Draugr. There was another club. Naglfar. They hated each other."

Under my palm, his chest has gone hard as stone.

"I was nine." His voice drops. "My mother was driving me home from school. She was pregnant. Seven months. I'd already picked the name. Liv. It means life."

My eyes burn.

"A car pulled up next to us at a light." His jaw works. "The window came down. I saw the gun. I didn't understand what it was."

He stops.

His throat moves.

"The glass exploded." It comes out barely a whisper. "All of it, all over me. And she made a sound. And when I looked over, she had her hands pressed over her stomach, and there was blood coming out between her fingers."

Red between her fingers.

The night in the parking lot, when he looked at the cut on my arm and something in his face went so far away.

"She lived." He closes his eyes. "Liv didn't."

Tears are running down my face again, sliding sideways into the pillow.

"She turned witness after that." His voice is flat now, emptied out. "Against both clubs. And she knew they'd come for me to shut her up, so she put me on a plane to America with a new name and told me to forget her face."

"And you put them on your arm." My voice breaks. "Both of them."

"Where I'd see them every day." He opens his eyes and looks at me. "So I'd never forget. Even if she told me to."

I can't speak.

I pull his arm up to my mouth and press my lips to the hidden letters, one name, then the other.

Signe.

Liv.