Page 155 of Bones
Trey’s arms around me tightened. “Ash,” he repeated in an amused voice. “Me an’ Mac tried to blame Clarity for a broken lamp once.”
“Did your mom believe you?” I asked.
He chuckled. "No cause Clarity couldn't even sit up by herself, much less throw a ball."
I grinned, trying to picture them as kids.
“I don’t remember which one of us came up with the idea, but it wasn’t our best.”
“So I guess you’ve always been a bad liar.”
“Hey,” he said, indignant. “I’m not a bad liar.”
I let out an amused huff. “Sure.”
“I just don’t lie much.”
“Cause you’re bad at it.”
“I bet I could tell you a lie right now and you’d believe it.”
“Try me.” I grinned.
“Alright. I’m gonna tell you three things and one of ’em will be a lie and you have to guess which one.”
“Ok.”
He paused for a moment, thinking. “I hate mice. I don’t like goat cheese. I can’t swim.”
I had to resist laughing. His voice changed on the last statement, a clear tell, and besides that I doubted the Safeguard training would neglect swim lessons. “You can swim.”
“How did you know that?” he demanded.
“You’re a bad liar,” I repeated, tilting my head back to grin at him. “It’s ok. I love that about you.”
He glared playfully down at me.
“You don’t like?—
A howl interrupted me and we both fell silent. The horse’s ears flicked back, listening. They still sounded close, but notcloser.
“Should we be quiet?” I whispered.
“Probably wouldn’t hurt,” he muttered.
I tried not to think about the wolves, but they kept howling like they wanted to remind us they were there. I couldn’t help thinking how horribly fitting it would be if I spent most of my life afraid of Wolf killing me only to be killed by actual wolves.
The night seemed to stretch on forever. I dozed off a few times, usually jerking awake in a panic and startling the horse and Trey. He kept insisting I could sleep, but I didn't want to make him stay awake alone, so I fought it the best I could. The wolves howled until the sky began to lighten. Our poor horse plodded through the snow. We would have to take a break soon. As the sun rose, we listened for the wolves, but the mountains had fallen silent again.
“Hey, look!” Trey said, pointing a hand in front of us.
I followed his finger to see faint plumes of white smoke rising from behind the next rise. My heart seized in anxiety. “Is that a fire?”
“No.” I glanced up to see him grinning. “I’m gonna make it a surprise if you don’t know.”
“Ok,” I said with suspicion.
It took us several more hours to reach the white smoke, but we didn’t hear the wolves at all. As we drew nearer, I wrinkled my nose. Something smelledfoul.
