Chapter 196

Liam

Tiernan’s truck came down the eastern road a little after ten in the morning, with three people in the cab who had no business being anywhere near Moonhaven.

I was in the yard when it came through the gate. I saw it stop. I saw the passenger door open, and Sloane get down, stiffly, in a man’s coat too big for her, with her hair tied back and her face thin and set. I saw Malachi get down after her, and stand beside the truck with his hands at his sides, the way he had stood in the snow outside the shepherd’s hut. Teague stayed in the cab.

Half the yard had stopped what it was doing to look.

Sloane saw me. She came across the yard, limping a little, and stopped in front of me, and looked at the mark on my neck above my collar. Her mouth moved.

“You did it,” she said.

“Six days before they took her.”

“Good.” Her voice cracked on it. “Good. She’d have been so happy.” She looked past me at the packhouse. “Where is he?”

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