Chapter 548

ARIA

“You’re img,” Kael said, “that the corridor situation was chapter seventeen.”

“We’re

ructural similarities,” Jordan said.

“WE

S” Kael started.

licit,” Ivory said. “Just that the configuration produced feelings in the participants issimilar to the feelings described in chapter seventeen’s opening.”

ere no feelings,” Kael said.

was red,” Jordan said.

an had just read chapter fourteen,” Kael said.

hich produced feelings,” Jordan said.

About the chapter,” Kael said. “Not about-”

About the themes of the chapter,” Jordan said.

“Which connect to,” Ivory said.

“Stop,” Kael said.

They stopped.

He looked at Killian.

Killian looked at the book.

“Chapter seventeen,” Ki been managing th has been servin

function.” H

implicatio

distanc

arefully, “is the chapter where the older brother realizes he’s

esence in the house from a distance, and the distance corridor collision forces him to confront that

specific content of chapter fourteen or any

eans. It’s about the fact that the management of de the choice visible.”

Kael looked at Killian with the expression of someone who’d been handed an accurate analysis of their own behavior and was deciding how to receive it.

“That,” Jordan said, “is a very clean read of chapter seventeen.”

“Ivory’s annotations helped,” Killian said.

You read the annotations,” Ivory said.

You left them in the book,” Killian said. “The copy with the separate page between fourteen and fifteen.”

“I left you the annotated copy,” Ivory said.

“Was that intentional,” Killian said.

“Everything I do is intentional,” Ivory said.

The table processed this.

Silver, in my head, said: *She’s really something.*

*She really is,* I said.

“My window,” Kael said.

Everyone looked at him.

He had the expression of someone who’d arrived at a decision and was in the moment of going through.

“Is the bond,” he said. “Specifically the parts of it I’ve been managing rather than having. The wolf knows things I’ve been organizing my response to rather than letting inform the response.” He looked at me. “That’s the window. The distance between what the wolf knows and what the person has said out loud.”

He was looking at me with the full directness he used when he’d decided to be direct rather than managed.

I held the lo

“The w

mer through the bond for weeks.”

“No,” he said.

“It’s integration,” I said.

“It’s the beginning of it,” he said. “The wolf has been-” he stopped, and the stopping had the quality of going through rather than managing. “The wolf has been telling me to stop pretending the obvious thing isn’t obvious. For weeks.”

ious thing,” I said.

bond is real,” he said. “Not just functionally. Not just as a mechanism. Actually real. I’ve been treating it like a responsibility rather than a-” he stopped again.

at,” I said.

hoice,” he said. “That I’m r own that for months. I’ve

The table was very quiet.

Silver was doing some something complet

“The window,”

“The winde

Jordan

was

I want to be making.” He held my gaze. “The wolf has up.”

est that was warm and steady and had the quality of

no one specifically.

with the expression of someone who’d been waiting for this and ecific satisfaction of someone who’d known it was coming and was

r notebook, which was Nina’s version of processing something she found

gat Ivory.

g at the book.

said.

n getting warmer. She’s been talking to him.”

“Through the bond,” I confirmed.

“What has she been saying,” he said.

“That he’s been ready for a while,” I said. “And that you were catching up.”

d at the window. The actual window. The training yard outside it. The ordinary pack

ght up,” he said.

r, in my head, made a so

ood,” I said.

The book club continu

It was loud. It was op arguments about th contributing to a everyone, inclu more person specific wil

I had of the fer the d

was

as the warmest thing I’d heard from her.

ne point Jordan and Ivory were having three simultaneous hapters and Nina was mediating one of them while de. Killian had opinions about chapter nine that surprised el had opinions about Everest’s choices that were significantly al framing technically required but which he delivered with the e who’d gone through the window and was on the other side of it.

male lead that produced a twenty-minute discussion about whether o of the story or the person the story was happening around, and clusion because both positions had merit and everyone in the room

Killian were agreeing about something, which caused everyone else to

ina and Ivory had an exchange so fast and dense with references to specific otations that Jordan looked at me and said, quietly: “They’ve been doing this ars. We’re only hearing the outside of it.”

rs,” he said. “They process had available.”

a and Ivory, inner circ

ded sa

le thing through the books. It was the

n, and understood something

‘d found ways to say the huch. The books had been

The book club was not, ultimately, about the books.

It was about all of them having found a way, finally, to be in the same room talking about the things they’d been carrying.

Silver said: *This is what pack is.*

*Yes,* I said.

*Not the formal version,* she said. *This. Six people and bad opinions about chapter seventeen and someone going thro a window.*

*Yes,* I said.

The book club

Nobody got

It was the

a/n

b

urs.

I’d attended in nine months.

had a book club discussing about them, but them seeing it as a fictional this method for them to have the conversation that they are supposed to right timing because this is the first time all of them have been in the room ame page, and are talking about the real thing under impressions. My initial his; i wanted killian to remain the bad guy, to get shut out and i knew doing o be cruel and horrible and make my readers see killian as a victim like aria so i ng him comfort, like this to show he had a place and then i will take it away from roy it, hahahahahahaha.

break they had is basically me having a break because i can’t for once figure out the plot should go, but i finally have a destination i have chosen and now things are get real messy, bloody, people dying, and i can’t wait to get there. I was also thinking, this book and then start the continuation on a new name because incase you guys t noticed, we are past the chapter 530 mark. i honestly thought this book would flop after ecause i decided to not write it the way people expected and i know that i had done some but i also tried my best to write some interesting things, and well you guys are still here. his will be a discussion fo

ch to the rest. So no

i have to get my

aments will be

ing it.

love focused on this book for a while now. Time to

ednesday. A new semester starts this monday

in updates so just be checking. Remember

ment as many times as you want. i love