The last lamp on the causeway would not catch.
Linnea cupped the wick until her fingers burned, because this was the one thing she could still do right.
Siv: Get down from there.
Siv: If Torren rides past and sees you, he'll say you're begging again.
Linnea ducked behind the lamp post. Her mother's shawl smelled of smoke and old fear.
Siv: Stay out of sight tonight. You shame me just by standing where people can see.
The warning went in like a splinter under the nail.
It always did. Her mother had never once said it kindly.
Hooves rang on the causeway stones.
Torren came first in his black coat. Verity rode beside him, copper hair bright, and looked at Linnea the way a woman looks at a stain.
Torren: Still on this road.
Torren: Every time the pack sees you out here, they think the Alpha house is soft on useless blood.
A man behind him snickered. Another laughed into his glove.
Linnea's face went hot, then cold. She had not asked to be born with no wolf.
Verity: Don't be cruel, Torren.
Verity: She has nowhere else to be.
Verity: I could find her a place.
Verity: A broom, a bucket, a corner to sleep in. Most would give her less.
Someone in the pack muttered the word cripple.
The laugh spread through the crowd like water finding a crack.
Torren: She's a weakness I don't need.
Torren: Keep her out of my sight, or I'll have her moved to the cold cellar.
He rode on without looking back.
The cold stone pressed her knees, and it was the only thing holding her up.
A boot shoved her oil can off the wall.
Black oil spread across the ice. Nobody stopped. Nobody even slowed.
Jessa: Linnea. Look at me.
Jessa: Breathe. I've got you.
Jessa: Come to the healer's door tonight.
Jessa: I'll leave it unlatched. You're not alone out here.
Linnea held onto her friend's sleeve and let herself believe it.
Gratitude came up so fast it hurt.
Then she stood up.
She found the wick. She filled the lamp. She struck the flint until her thumb bled.
The flame caught.
She looked down the dark road at the backs of them all.
Linnea: You don't get to put me out.