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“‘When the person held has become divided between worlds, the release road may return them fully to the body. The walker must carry the witness stone while the bond remains open and heard. The holder must not pursue. The witness must not call or tether. The walker’s return is not promised.’” Her voice thins on the last sentence, but she finishes it.

Ezra reaches for me. His hand settles over the bite beneath my collar. “I want to do it.”

“What if you don’t come back?” The question leaves me before I can stop it.

Pepper’s face tightens again. She wraps one hand around Ezra’s wrist.

Ezra grips my shirt. “If you love me, Theo, you have to let me go.”

“I do love you.”

“Then let me find out whether I can come back.”

“I don’t know how.”

The bell tolls again.

Pepper looks at me through swollen eyes. She’s muddy, soaked, and still crying, but there’s nothing uncertain in her face. “This is the only way that gives him a real choice.”

Every part of me built for protection calls them wrong. My alpha howls in my chest.

I press my forehead to Ezra’s. “Tell me how to do it without losing you.”

His breath shakes against my mouth. “I can’t.” His hand tightens over the old bite high on my shoulder. “You just have to trust that I’ll find my way home.”

Chapter 35

Theo Heron

Mud circles the shower drain in dark ribbons. Pepper stands beneath the spray with her palms against the tile while I rinse the cemetery from her hair. Brown water slides over her shoulders, carrying grit and the last traces of the false grave away from her skin.

She has stopped crying.

Ezra sits on the closed toilet lid wrapped in a towel, his wet hair pushed away from his face. Water keeps him solid. Every detail is clear under the bathroom light, from the blue veins along his hands to the old bite scar above his collarbone.

I keep looking at it.

Pepper turns her face into the spray. “Theo.”

I drag my gaze back to her.

“You’re washing the same curl for the fifth time,” she says.

“There was mud in it.”

“There was mud everywhere.”

She’s right. My clothes are piled in the tub beside Ezra’s. Wet earth covers the bathmat. The hallway floor will need mopping.

A problem with an answer.

I smooth conditioner down the length of Pepper’s curls.

She closes her eyes. “That feels nice.”

My purr starts.

Ezra rises from the closed toilet lid and comes close enough to rest his hand on my forearm. The touch is solid. Alive.The old bond tightens around my chest, carrying the fear he has tried to hide since we left the grave.