Page 76 of In Her Own Rite

“I know.”

“You have to do it,” he says. “If she has more information—”

“I don’t know, man. She could be talking out of her ass.”

“Yeah. Maybe. But if she’s not…”

“I’ll let you know after I talk to your mom,” I say. “How are things over there?”

“Good. Em shifted to her wolf form and back today, on purpose. The girls are celebrating.”

I feel a grin spread over my face. “That’s amazing. Can I talk to her?”

“Uh, let me ask.”

I hear a rustling at the other end of the line, and some mumbling.

“Sorry, not right now,” Gabe says when he comes back. “She and Maren just put on these disgusting green face masks and they look like hags, so they can’t talk. Hey!—” I hear a soft thud as something seems to hit him, presumably a couch pillow. The sound of laughter comes through the line, and I can make out Em’s giggle, soft and flowing like a brook. My inner wolf responds eagerly to the sound, wanting to play.

Not now, dumbass.

“Yeah, now’s not a good time,” Gabe says. “But I’ll tell them about this. She’ll probably call you later to hear more for herself.”

“Okay. Thanks.” I swallow. “Talk later, then?”

“Yeah, talk later. Bye.”

We hang up, and I see Saga walking to the common house with a bag of salves. Even from here, I can smell theuikbaaneand wrinkle my nose. I walk up to her as she nears the door.

“Heij, Saga.”

“Oh, Kieran. I didn’t have the chance to welcome you back to the island yet. It’s good to have you home,tekanni.”My son. I’m not her kid, of course, and I’m not even formally a member of herfika. But the term feels like it acknowledges my role in their pack in a way I really need right now—especially with Em putting so much distance between us. I swallow the feeling in my throat.

“Thanks, Saga,” I say. “You, too. Hang on, I need to talk to you.” I reach out a hand to stop her before she heads for the door to the common house.

“What is it?”

“Is the name Thalia Nayakka familiar to you? Or Nomi?”

She furrows her brow. “Vaguely… Why? What’s going on?”

I swallow. “The wolf I caught—I’m pretty sure she’s the one who hurt Gabe. She says she and her sister originally tried to come here as asylum seekers. She’s willing to talk to us in exchange for—I don’t even know what. Protection or a place on the islands, or something.”

I see it in her face the moment I mention Gabe’s injury. Her mouth tightens, and she shakes her head as she answers me.

“We can’t negotiate with these people. If she attacked Gabriel, she’s not someone we can let onto our shores, asylum petition or not.”

“She said she had no other way to get here.”

“She should have waited for us to approve her request.”

“But—” I run a hand through my hair, remembering the argument we had over dinner a few weeks back. “We weren’t going to approve it, were we? We denied her twice. The second time you didn’t even bring it for a vote.”

She shakes her head. “I’m sorry,piu, I can’t have this conversation right now. I need to go see that we stop them from shifting. But we can discuss it later. Are you coming to thefikarigfor dinner? Now that they’re caught, I think we can return home.”

“Is that safe? This can’t be all of them. They knew the island too well to all be southerners. But if we talk to the girl, maybe she can tell us—”

“Later, Kieran. We’ll discuss this later. If you want to join us at thefikarigfor dinner, you’re welcome to.”

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