Page 212 of Salt Between the Wolves

Soren felt something cold tighten inside his chest. It wasn't anger, at least not entirely. It felt closer to humiliation, because they weren't wrong and because they knew it.

"The council is over."

The dismissal came quietly, but there was enough danger beneath it to make the meaning unmistakable.

Neither man moved. That was probably a mistake. Kael folded his arms.

"Eight wolves are dead."

The words landed harder than Soren expected, not because they sounded like an accusation, but because they didn't. They were simply a fact, and lately everyone seemed very fond of facts.

"We know why it happened."

Soren slowly lifted his eyes.

The room suddenly felt smaller.

"Careful."

Kael held his gaze and, to his credit, did not look away.

"You stopped listening."

The words hung in the air with a brutal simplicity that made them impossible to ignore.

Soren rose from his chair, and its legs scraped sharply across the stone floor.

Both men remained exactly where they were. Neither reached for a weapon, and neither stepped back, which somehow made everything worse.

The mark burned beneath his skin, sending a hot pulse through his ribs.

For one terrible second, he wanted them to argue. He wanted them to shout, to accuse him, to give him something easier to fight.

Instead, Garrick spoke quietly.

"You think this is about weakness."

Silence settled over the room.

"You think we're questioning whether you're capable."

Another pause followed.

"We're not."

The captain's gaze remained steady.

"We're questioning how much longer you can keep carrying all of this by yourself."

For the first time since the conversation began, Soren had no answer.

The realization irritated him more than anything else because part of him already knew the truth and had known it for quite some time.

The room fell silent once more, and this time no one seemed eager to break it.

Three wolves stood around one table inside one fortress, facing a truth all of them had finally stopped pretending not to see.

Eventually Kael exhaled, and the sound seemed unusually loud in the silence that followed.