Page 193 of Wolf Roulette

I could respect what she’d gone through to live for me.

I could grieve what she’d lost that made our lives so hard sometimes.

… I could still call Ragna my mother.

Tonight, I’d play my saxophone for her, as I’d always done. My mother would be with her tribe again.

I closed the case and placed the instrument in a black cloth bag that would keep Sascha in the dark until my part was revealed.

“Andie?” Roderick called to me. “It’s time for a few words.”

Didn’t people say that at funerals?

The stewards had gathered between the two columns of parked cars. I couldn’t locate a rock, so I jumped to grab a low-hanging branch and swung myself up Luther-style.

Maybe I shouldn’t have chosen this spot. Were the leaves shaking as hard as my insides?

“Stewards,” I pitched my voice higher, “we stand on Lake Thana about to claim our fifth and final grid.” I surveyed their silent mass. “Please link hands and close your eyes.”

Immediately, some of their nervousness ebbed.

“The stewards around you are your heartbeat. Listen to their breath. Feel their warmth and the soft wind on your face. Know that our ancestors surround us, cheering us on and willing this game to be over. Don’t think about tomorrow. Don’t think about yesterday. Take this moment to think about what you need to do the moment you step into the grid.”

I took the chance to do the same and felt Booker preparing herself too.

“Open your eyes,” I called. “Stay linked.”

They did so, and their new calm echoed mine.

“Not long ago, we were four grids down. I asked you to remember that sickening, fearful feeling that your life would be uprooted. That you’d soon leave everything you knew behind to face uncertainty. The pack feels that way tonight with the added knowledge that an attempt to leave this valley will probably kill them all. Coming here will feel like walking to their death. So when this game ends, I want you to put yourself in their shoes. I ask that you be respectful of their position.”

I let that sink in.

I raised my fist. “Stewards, Victratum ends tonight.”

“Victratum ends tonight.”

“Victratum ends tonight,” I shouted from my tree branch.

They roared their response. “Victratum ends tonight!”

Boom.

Ever a well-oiled team, the stewards surged forward, streaming under my tree perch towards the lake.

At the back of the group, Rhona paused beneath my spot. She’d enter the grid as part of Reindeer’s unit tonight.

I nodded at her. Rhona nodded back and ran after the north team.

“Ready?” Pascal asked from below. She held up my saxophone and backpack.

No.“A girl guide is always prepared.”

I jumped down and took the instrument from her before walking with her to our boat.

Pascal directed us around to the concealed end of the lake that was off limits to the public. Not far from here, the pack managed a hydro power plant that supplied energy to the town. I’d never actually seen it.

Kind of ironic that wolves controlled the Water grid when they hated getting wet.