#Chapter 206 – Refusing to Run

Damon I told the villagers my name was Corin and that I’d come north to rest. A wolf wounded, I said. Broken ribs over a broken heart. Nothing that would keep me from riding again soon. They believed me easily enough. No one here was suspicious. No one here had reason to be. I rented a small room above the tavern on the edge of the square. It smelled of stale ale and cedar smoke, but it had a window that faced the apothecary. That was all I needed. Days passed in the dull rhythm of someone else’s life. I sat at the tavern table pretending to read maps while the world outside moved without me. And Lila, she was always moving. Every morning, Lila crossed the square with a basket in her arms, two young children skipping behind her through the snow. They were both small and bright, their laughter cutting through the cold. Their eyes had the same shade of gold as mine when the light hit them. I’d know that shade anywhere. Each time they ran to her, something inside me twisted ti