The fire had burned down to embers, casting the small living room in shades of orange and shadow.
Elijah sat in the worn armchair near the hearth, his phone pressed to his ear, one hand resting on the armrest where Mara had draped her knitting earlier. The wool was soft beneath his fingers.
Blue.
The color of the sky before a storm.
Outside, the wind rattled the windows.
Tanesab was settling into its evening rhythm—the clatter of dishes from the neighbor's kitchen, the distant bark of a dog, and the soft hush of snow beginning to fall.
Mara was in the bedroom, reading by lamplight. Elijah could see the glow beneath the door, thin and golden, and he could hear the occasional turn of a page.
She wasn't waiting up for him. She never did anymore.
But she left the light on anyway, a small kindness that said more than words ever could.
The line clicked.
"Eli," Zachary's voice was warm, a little out of breath, the way it always was when he answered after running up the stairs to his study.
"You're calling late. Everything okay?"
Elijah leaned back in the chair, the wood creaking beneath him.
"Yeah. Everything's fine. I just thought you should know that Aida came last night. Mara was beyond happy to see her sister again."
Zachary was quiet for a moment. Then: "Aida? As in Mara's sister?"
"The same."
"Huh." Zachary let out a low whistle. "I haven't seen her in... what, two years? Three? Last I heard, she was somewhere down south, running her business like it wasn't attacked by the night children before."
Elijah smiled grimly. "That's Aida. No care in the world."
"What about her? Is she okay?"
Elijah looked at the fire.
The flames had gone low, just blue and orange tongues licking at the last log. "Yeah. She brought a young wolf with her, dropped him off by the entrance, and looked like a lost puppy."
Zachary's curiosity sharpened. "A lone wolf? In Tanesab?"
"He's not a lone wolf," Elijah said. "He's got pack markings. Came all the way from the highway down south, from what Aida told Mara. My guess was that he probably came from the pack of La Ber or Mongro."
"Mongro, maybe. What's the color of his skin?" Zachary's voice shifted. "Tan," Elijah answered. Zachary hummed in understanding then spoke, "He came from La Ber then. But Tanesab is a long way from La Ber."
"Aida was with him, remember?" "Right." Zachary murmured, "Still though, what's a wolf from La Ber doing all the way out there?"
Elijah shook his head, even though Zachary couldn't see him. "To run away."
Zachary laughed, snorted even, but the curiosity was stuck in his words. "From what?"
"Didn't ask," Elijah said simply. "People come here to leave things behind. Questions included."
Zachary was quiet for a moment. Then, softer: "So where is he now? The kid from La Ber?"
Elijah's jaw tightened. "With Rohan."
The silence that followed was heavy.
The kind of silence that settles into a room and stays there, pressing against the walls, making itself comfortable.
"Rohan," Zachary said slowly. "Rohan of the missing finger?"
"The same."
"Why would Aida leave a kid from La Ber with Rohan? No offense to the man, but he's not exactly... welcoming."
Elijah closed his eyes.
He thought of Lucas sitting in Rohan's cabin last night, wrists raw from silver, eyes hollow with exhaustion.
He thought of the way Rohan had looked at the kid—not with pity, not with curiosity, but with recognition. The way one wounded animal looks at another.
"They carry the same burden," Elijah said quietly.
Zachary didn't speak. He was waiting.
Elijah opened his eyes. "The kid imprinted on a vampire."
Another silence. It's longer this time.
"Ah," Zachary said finally. Just that. One syllable. But it carried the weight of understanding. "That's tough, man. I could still remember what Rohan went through when his pack found out he mated with their enemy."
"Exactly. Rohan knows what that's like," Elijah continued.
"Having your soul tie itself to something the world says it shouldn't. Having everyone look at you like you've made a choice instead of a curse. Rohan tried to cut his bond once. Lost his finger trying. Didn't work."
Zachary exhaled slowly. "So Rohan took him in because he sees himself in the kid."
"No, he knew the kid. Apparently, he was the kid's uncle."
"What? For real?" Elijah hummed in response. Zachary released an exasperated laugh from his own cabin, earning glances from those wolves outside his window.
"And the pack in La Ber? They just let him leave, an imprinted wolf wandering off into the world?"
Elijah shrugged. "I don't know the details. Like I said, I didn't ask. But from the look of him... he didn't leave because he wanted to. He left because he had to."
Zachary was quiet for a beat. Then: "Why are you telling me this, Eli? You're not asking for anything. I can tell."
Elijah smiled. His brother knew him too well.
"Because I wanted you to know," Elijah said simply. "That's all. Tanesab got a little more interesting, and I thought you'd want to hear it from me before you heard it from someone else."
Zachary laughed. "You called me at midnight to tell me village gossip?"
"I called you at midnight because you're my brother, and I don't call enough." Elijah paused. "And because I thought you'd want to know that Aida is still here until tomorrow afternoon before driving back home."
Zachary was silent for a beat. Then, softer: "How is Mara taking it?"
Elijah looked toward the bedroom door. The light was still on. The pages were still turning.
"She was just happy," he admitted. "But I think... I think she's glad Aida came. They're sisters. The distance between them isn't as wide as they pretend."
Zachary hummed, a low sound of acknowledgment. "And the vampire? The one the kid imprinted on? What's his deal?"
Elijah thought about the vision Rohan had described, a pale young man with brown hair, running through the forest, driven by something he couldn't name. A vampire who had let his imprint walk away and had been tearing himself apart ever since.
"Doesn't matter," Elijah said.
"Lucas is in Tanesab now. He's with Rohan. Whatever happened in La Ber, whatever happened with the vampire—that's his business. Not mine. Not anyone's."
Zachary was quiet for a long moment.
"You've changed, Eli. The old you would have been on the phone asking me to dig up everything I could find about this kid. About his pack. About the vampire. About—"
"I know." Elijah cut him off gently.
"But Tanesab changed me. That's why we came here. Remember? A place where no one asks questions. A place where everyone just... is."
Zachary sighed. It wasn't a frustrated sigh. It was the sigh of a brother who understood.
"Yeah," Zachary said. "I remember."
They were both quiet for a moment.
The fire crackled. The wind howled.
Somewhere in the distance, an owl called out once, twice, and then fell silent.
"How's the pack treating you?" Elijah asked, changing the subject. "Still cold enough for you?"
Zachary laughed.
"It's always cold, Eli. That's the point. The snow never melts up here. And the moon—" He paused. "The moon rises red tomorrow night. Solstice. The whole mountain will look like it's bleeding."
Elijah shivered, though the room was warm. "I don't miss that."
"Neither do I." Zachary's voice softened. "But it's home, the same as Tanesab is home for you now."
"Yeah," Elijah said. "I guess it is."
Another pause. Then Zachary said, "Tell Mara I said hello. And tell her... tell her Aida showing up doesn't have to mean something. Sometimes people just show up."
Elijah smiled. "I'll tell her."
"And Eli?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for calling. It's good to hear your voice."
Elijah's throat tightened. "Yours too, Zach."
The line went dead. Elijah lowered the phone and sat there for a moment, staring at the dark hearth, the wool of Mara's knitting soft beneath his fingers.
Outside, the snow kept falling.
And somewhere in the village, in a cabin at the edge of the trees, a young wolf from La Ber who had imprinted on a vampire was probably not sleeping either.
Elijah stood up, stretched his stiff legs, and walked toward the bedroom door. He knocked once, softly.
"Come in," Mara said.
He opened the door. She was sitting up in bed, her book open in her lap, her dark hair loose around her shoulders. The lamplight caught the silver hairs at her temples—new this year, new since the loss.
"Zach says hello," Elijah said, sitting on the edge of the bed.
Mara's expression didn't change, but something in her eyes softened. "Did you tell him about Aida?"
"Yeah."
She was quiet for a moment. Then: "What did he say?"
"That sometimes people just show up. That it doesn't have to mean something."
Mara looked down at her book. Her thumb traced the edge of the page, back and forth, back and forth.
"Maybe he's right," she said finally. "Maybe it doesn't mean anything."
Elijah reached over and took her hand. Her fingers were cold, even under the blankets.
"Maybe," he said. "But if it does—if Aida brought that boy here for a reason—we'll face it. Together."
Mara looked up at him. Her eyes were tired, but they were steady.
"Together," she repeated.
She squeezed his hand.
Elijah turned off the light.