The Midnight Storm (A New Dawn #2)

Chapter 32 - Fox

"I'm Fox," he said to Wolf. "What were you doing under the bed?"

"Listening to the story of the beautiful Crow Lady." Wolf picked up the book that had fallen and gave it back to Fox. "Can you read more? I want to know how it ends."

"I don't know." Fox gestured at Felix who uttered a soft peeping noise each time his chest rose and fell. "It would be rude to continue without your brother."

"Fe doesn't have to know."

Fox slipped the book back under Felix's pillow, carefully, to not wake up him. "No, I can't do it. He's my friend."

"What's a friend?" Wolf asked.

"What's a...?" Fox repeated, confused.

Wolf hadn't seemed so lonely at the banquet after Panthera's funeral. Most of the royal family had ignored him, even when he had asked for more food when there was plenty left, but there had always been a servant who had run after him. How could he not have friends?

Wolf looked at him, his brown eyes blank, as if waiting for an explanation.

"You don't know what friends are?" Fox asked to be sure.

Wolf cocked his head. "You can have more than one?"

"Yeah, friends are people who..." He paused—How did he have to explain this? "You play together with friends. You can perform magic or wrestle or fight with swords, but you're not angry at them—it's for fun. Friends make you laugh when you want to cry, and they make you laugh harder when you're happy. They tell you the truth and are great at keeping secrets. Having a friend is like having a brother or a sister, but better because you choose them."

"Then I choose you to be my friend" Wolf blurted out. "Do you choose me back?"

Fox looked at Felix, who was still fast asleep, then back at Wolf. "I'm supposed to do a lot of things together with Felix."

"Oh." Wolf drooped his head. "But what if I told you a secret?"

Fox got curious. "What secret?"

"Fe is going to die." There was a deadpan expression on Wolf's face. He told it calmly, as though he was announcing that today's dessert would be almond cake.

Fox, however, found himself staring at the boy with an open mouth. "What makes you think that?"

"I've heard people say it. The guards, Uncle Leo, some of the servants. They always seem to stop talking about it as soon as they see me standing there." Wolf shrugged. "Do you want to be my friend now?"

"No, because Felix won't die. Right now, Katla is on his way to punish the man who did this him and to Panthera. And then after that, all will be well," Fox reassured Wolf. And also himself, a little.

"Will he also punish my mother?" 

Fox cocked his head. The conversation got more and more curious.

"Why would he do that?"

"When Pan died Bear was very angry. He had the God of Wrath in him when he shoved me to a wall." Wolf touched a yellowish bump just below his hairline. "He said Pan is dead because of my mother, and so also because of me."

Fox took a few blinks to let the information sink in. It was no secret that Wolf was a bastard. Doe had told him all about him. Though many speculated who Wolf's mother could be, all people knew was that he had arrived in Moondale in a basket covered with blankets, by his feet a letter had been wrapped around a dried wolf cub's paw. All sins come back to haunt you. Now the Gods have spoken.