Page 121 of Salt Between the Wolves

No attempt to reassure her with promises.

Only certainty.

The kind that came from someone who had already considered the possibility and accepted it.

Eira lowered her gaze to the pack hanging from her shoulder.

Leaving had seemed obvious when she was alone.

Standing here, it felt less like caution and more like flight.

As though she had already decided what everyone else would choose before giving them the chance to choose it themselves.

Maelin waited without pressing further.

Eventually Eira released a slow breath and slipped the pack from her shoulder.

A faint smile appeared on her sister's face, though she wisely said nothing about the decision.

Together they turned back toward the house.

For the first time since hearing Leander's name, Eira allowed herself to consider that staying might not be a mistake, but a choice.

Leander was coming, and somehow his arrival had already entered the house before he had.

Unable to tolerate the walls any longer, Eira pulled on her cloak and stepped outside.

The cold greeted her immediately, though it was not the brutal mountain cold of Ironfang but something different and sharper.

The wind carried moisture with it, and beneath the familiar scents of snow and pine lingered something else: salt, faint and distant.

The smell followed her as she crossed the courtyard and climbed the stone path leading toward the western overlook above the river valley.

As she walked, the estate gradually disappeared behind her and the sounds of the house faded until only the wind remained.

By the time she reached the overlook, dusk had settled over the land.

Lanterns glowed below like scattered stars, while the river wound through the valley in a dark silver ribbon before disappearing into forests that stretched toward the western horizon. Somewhere beyond those forests lay the coast, and beyond the coast stretched the sea.

Eira rested her hands against the wooden railing and stared into the growing darkness.

For the first time in weeks, she did not know what came next.

The realization should have frightened her, yet instead it left her strangely calm.

There was no father waiting to decide her future, no council to answer to, no journey she needed to survive, and no destination she had to reach before winter closed the roads.

There was only uncertainty, and for the first time in her life that uncertainty belonged entirely to her.

The thought lingered until movement caught her eye far below along the western road.

At first she thought it was a trick of the fading light, but then she saw it again.

A small group of riders emerged from the trees and moved steadily along the river road toward the estate.

Eira straightened instinctively, and her gaze settled upon the rider at the front.

He was tall and broad-shouldered, the obvious choice for a leader and the kind of man people noticed first. He was exactly the sort of figure she had spent most of her life being taught to look for: an alpha, a leader, the center of attention.