Page 30 of The Witch & the Hound
"Even if the truth is ugly?"
"Especially then."
Something in the way he said it made me think he wasn't just talking about Captain Hood anymore.
I reached for his hand under the table. His fingers closed around mine, cool and solid and real.
"For what it's worth," I said, "I think Mary Hood would’ve liked you."
His brow furrowed. "Why?"
"Because you see the people everyone else ignores. The ones who get written out of the story."
His thumb brushed across my knuckles, a small, unconscious gesture that made my pulse skip.
"You see them too," he said.
"Cop training. I had to learn to read what people weren't saying."
"Is that why you left?"
The question landed gently, but it still hit something tender. I'd known it was coming eventually, the conversation about why I'd traded a badge for soap molds, why I'd chosen isolation over community until I collapsed in the toy aisle and a barghest rearranged everything.
But before I could answer, the restaurant's front door slammed open with enough force to rattle the wine glasses.
Every conversation stopped.
A child stood in the doorway, breathing hard, eyes wild with panic.
Ethan.
The boy who'd touched Bram's horns on the street.
His mother appeared behind him, trying to grab his shoulder. "Ethan, you can't just—"
But he was already moving, scanning the dining room with desperate focus until his eyes locked on our table.
On Bram.
He ran toward us, his mother calling after him, Trevor the server trying to intercept, the whole restaurant watching as this small, frantic child skidded to a stop beside our table.
"You have to help," he gasped. "We can't find my sister. She's been gone for—" He looked at his mother, who'd finally caught up. "How long?"
"Twenty minutes," she said, voice shaking. "We've looked everywhere. The deputy's outside, but he doesn't know what to—" She seemed to realize she was talking to strangers in a restaurant. "I'm sorry. Ethan said you were—he said you could—"
"Track," Ethan finished, looking at Bram with absolute certainty. "You said you're like a dog. Dogs can track people. Can you track my sister?"
The entire restaurant had gone silent. Every eye in the room was on us. On Bram, specifically, waiting to see what the barghest would do.
I felt him tense beside me, tail going still. This was the moment, the test. The town watching to see if the monster would help or if they'd been right to keep their distance.
I squeezed his hand once.Your choice.
He stood, leaving his napkin on the table, dinner forgotten.
"What's your sister's name?" he asked Ethan.
"Lily. She's six. She was right next to me, and then she wasn't, and—" The boy's voice cracked. "I looked away for one second."
