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I couldn't tell whether he had silenced them because of me or because he was tired of listening to them.

What bothered me more was that I cared.

The ache beneath my breastbone gave a single hard throb as the doors closed behind him.

After dinner, Tamsin followed me all the way up the two hundred and twelve stairs to my room without being asked. By the time she reached the top, she was out of breath, but that didn't stop her from immediately offering an opinion.

"You could hide in the tower," she said. "There have to be people who hide."

She sat cross-legged at the end of my iron bed in her running clothes, eating one of the apples she'd smuggled out of the Great Hall inside her sleeve. We had less than an hour until moonrise, and beyond the window the last of the daylight was fading over the sea.

"Nobody hides," I said. "The Saltmere prefect told me anyone who refuses to go into the Wood is automatically counted as caught. Which means I'd spend the next three months being Delphine's lovely little maid." I pulled my darkest sweater over my head. "I'd rather take my chances. Even if they try to eat me."

"Nobody is going to eat you," Tamsin said. Then she hesitated. "Probably."

"I wouldn't put anything past half the people in this school."

"Wren, you can't even shift. There are going to be wolves, cats, bears, and whatever else running around out there, and most of them will be able to smell where you've been." She lifted the apple, apparently searching for a tactful way to finish the thought. "And you're going to be exactly as you are now."

"I know."

I sat beside her and began lacing my boots as tightly as I could, tying each one with a double knot. The sole of the left boot was still peeling away at the toe, so I'd wedged a folded sock inside to keep it from moving too much.

"I've spent four years handling frightened animals, Tam. Some of them were very large, and some of them were very angry. The first thing you learn is that none of it is mysterious. There are reasons animals track, chase, hide, attack, or retreat. It's biology."

I held up one finger.

"Predators don't hunt with their noses alone, but there are two things I can interfere with: scent and movement. If I smell easy to track and move in ways that draw attention, they'll find me faster."

I raised another finger.

"There's a river running through the Wood and down toward the sea. I saw it from the tower. Moving through water will interrupt my scent trail. I only need to use it for short stretches, then get out before the cold becomes dangerous. I can move upstream along the bank, cross back into the water somewhere else, and make the trail harder to follow."

Tamsin stopped chewing. "You're going into the river."

"For a few minutes at a time."

"At night."

"Yes."

"In this weather."

I pulled the knot tight.

"Wren," she warned.

"I know what cold water does."

"Do you?"

"I work in veterinary medicine, Tam. I've treated hypothermia. I'm not planning to spend the night swimming."

She stared at me. "For some reason, that didn't make me feel better."

"It wasn't supposed to. I'm saying I know it's a risk, and I know the signs to watch for. If I start shivering hard, getting clumsy, feeling unusually tired, or having trouble thinking clearly, I get out and I stay out."

Tamsin lowered the apple.