The wolf was under the bed when the war for the warm floor ended.
Grimm had been there the whole time, her long body folded into the dark gap where the heater vent did not reach.
She had not moved once while Maren crossed the green and claimed the chair and lost the floor to a mole leaning on her arm.
◆◆◆◆
The perception-channel had been open since the day she crossed the old ceiling.
Yara held Soren's location the way a body holds the fact of its own hand.
There was no reaching and no falloff, just a constant she carried whether she wanted to or not.
She always wanted to.
When Maren sat on the edge of the bed like she owned it, the wolf under the bed knew the exact weight of it.
When Mona leaned into the fox and the fox went still, the wolf knew that too.
She knew the shape of every body in the room arranged around the one body the channel pointed at.
She lay in the dark with her eyes shut and she did not get up.
