ALICE'S POVNine days left.I'd started counting before I got out of bed — the number just sitting there before coffee, before I'd even brushed my teeth. Nine days until the council's window closed, and I still didn't know what I'd put in the box marked answer.John's kiss sat between us, neither of us naming it since the morning after. He and Benjamin hadn't said a word to each other since the festival — a cold, careful orbit, both of them circling me instead of each other. I was tired of being something two grown men took turns being careful around.The clinic was busy enough that I didn't have much room to think about any of it. I was grateful for that.Lily showed up just after the lunch rush, slipping in through the side door the way she usually did, a folded piece of paper held against her chest like something precious."I made you something," she said, holding it out before I'd even fully turned around.A blue wolf, drawn in careful, uneven crayon, standing beside a smaller fig
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