Chapter 30. Sanctuary

June's POV

We drove for the cairn without stopping.

Edda sat in the cab beside Brenna, gripping the door handle with both hands, saying nothing at all. She'd heard me repeat Nell's message. She'd heard Pip. She'd heard hurt bad. She hadn't spoken since.

I knew that silence. I'd lived in it.

The boundary cairn stood at the south edge of the Reach where I'd knelt in front of Rhett eight days ago. Two Thornfall scouts were waiting there with drawn knives, standing guard over two figures on the ground.

Pip lay on a wool blanket. Thin, small, curled on his side. His face was so swollen I wouldn't have known him. One eye was shut. His lip was split. When Edda scrambled out of the truck and ran to him, he lifted his head, and a sound came out of him that wasn't a word.

Edda dropped to her knees and gathered him up, and the two of them rocked back and forth on the blanket, and neither