Chapter 9 · Tamer of the Ash Wilds - Chapter 9: Dead Channel

The pass wouldn't stop clicking.

Lin pressed his thumb over the metal face, smearing half-dried blood across the raised stamp. The sound kept going. Click-click-pause. Click-click-pause. Like something was trying to connect on the other end, pinging a tower that didn't exist anymore.

Crunch was asleep against his leg, breathing steady now. The antibiotic had done its job. Lin could feel the heat coming off the cub's side, but it wasn't the bad kind. Just normal fever, the kind that meant a body was fighting and winning.

He should've felt better.

Instead he sat there in the dim pre-dawn light, listening to the pass click, and wondering who the hell had been on the other end of that warning.

"You're up early."

Lin's head snapped around. Kaelen stood three meters back, hands loose at his sides. He wasn't armed. Didn't need to be. The man had the kind of build that made you remember he used to fight in the pits himself before he started running bets on other people's blood.

"Couldn't sleep," Lin said.

Kaelen's eyes dropped to the pass in Lin's hand. Then to Crunch.