Chapter 82

Ronan's POV

At dawn I told the gate guards where I was going. Tamsin stood with them, wrapped in the old blue scarf Maeve always claimed she hadn't given her. She had taken the patrol keys from me the day before and wore them openly. I had spent years thinking their weight belonged at my belt. Seeing her carry them felt strange; seeing how naturally she answered a guard's question felt right.

Mara had come out without gloves. She knew my hands would notice. She also knew I could ask her to put them on if the sight made the old route worse. I chose to remember the way they had rested on me last night instead of making either of us prove something at the gate.

“The northern ford is shallow until the bend,” she said. “After that, take the pine trail. The bridge Soren marked washed out last year.”

“Denholm corrected it