With my new duster collar worn high, Mutt and I headed out toward the mansion grounds. Timp voiced her displeasure as I loaded her up with bags of supplies, but Mutt and I didn’t let her do all the work, each carrying a crate ourselves.

  Picklefinger had been overly generous. I honestly felt bad I didn’t have much in the way of greenbacks to toss him. Between purchasing train tickets for two, and whatever came on the other side of our travels, I’d leave him all the rest. A meager tip for services rendered.

  We stopped at the station first. The corkboard stood affixed to a pole outside. Picklefinger was right about there being a train in the morning, though it was Wednesday not Tuesday. It was headed east to Golden River, a train I’d rode before a few times. The small city also happened to be as far east as I’d ever traveled. Going further west to the coast had been on my mind, but either way made sense. Ace was as much a stranger to the east as me.

  “Do you think you will be safe there?” Mutt asked as we moved on.

  “Safer than here,” I said.

  “I am sorry we could not protect you.”

  I glared at him. “Don’t you ever be sorry to me, you hear that? Ever. You gave your soul for her, Mutt.” Concern flashed across his features. “I know we’re not supposed to talk about that, but it’s the damn truth. And what’s more? You kept Timp alive against that beast. If I could, I’d stay with your people and making sure nobody ever hurts another one of you again.”

  “So stay.” He said it so nonchalantly, inviting me to be one of them, to have and build a true home. I don’t imagine he knew how much that meant. If only things were that simple.

  I shook my head. “They won’t stop coming for us, and this ain’t your fight.”

  “They destroyed our home. It is now.”

  “That’s just it. It ain’t. I’m gonna have to live knowing that your home is gone because of me. I’ll feel a hell of a lot better about it, knowing that your people have you to guide them.”

  He didn’t appear to like my answer. “Mukwooru guides them. Then I come with you and fight to protect she who bends Huupi Sokobi. Mukwooru say to me, ‘We fight not to save world, but save the lives of those who do.’”

  That statement almost made me stop walking. To know that Mukwooru, despite everything, knew that this was a war worth waging… it relieved a bit of my burden.

  Just a bit.

  “Rosa won’t live forever,” I said, sadness unable to be hidden from my tone. “Old things move on and it’s up to the new.”

  Timp whinnied in agreement, rubbing her head against Mutt’s arm as if to cheer him up. What a beautiful sight. Very few men out there can gain her liking, and even fewer her respect. He’d earned both. Still, I couldn’t help but be drawn to all Timp’s cuts and scrapes—to the hitch in her step and the gray hairs popping through her coat.

  Old things move on…

  Mutt interrupted my thoughts. “You and Rosa do not have to be alone.”

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  “Mukwooru needs your strength. I’ve seen it. I know it. Wendigo might stake claim to your soul one day, but you’re a force of nature, kid. You help them find a home, and never let anyone take it again.”

  He didn’t answer, just stared forward as we trekked uphill toward Dufaux’s old estate. A few local natives eyed us like we were entering cursed grounds.

  “Will you return?” he asked as we got close.

  “Don’t reckon so.”

  He cleared his throat, as if trying to swallow a lump. “What if you defeat all her enemies?”

  “I’m not sure that’s possible.”

  “Then you will run forever?” It almost sounded like an accusation, but I knew he was just hurting.

  “Maybe. At least until she learns her powers enough that she don’t need me anymore.”

  “If that happen. You will always have a place here.” He pressed a fist to his heart, as if that statement meant more than just a physical place to reside with his people.

  We stopped just outside the mansion’s walls. I half-expected to see Cecil the Pinkerton guarding the place like my last visit, but the gate remained bent off its hinges, with plants growing through the crooked metal bars. Mukwooru stood there instead, arms folded and watching with an approving nod, like she agreed with what Mutt had said. Rowtag—the elder who’d wanted me gone—was beside her, looking on with disapprobation written all over his face.

  It was a fine sentiment Mutt offered, one I didn’t doubt he meant. Just could never be. Neither he nor Mukwooru could make me one of them and that was the end of it. Eternal peace in a home with them was simply a dream. For me, at least.

  “Thanks, kid.” I lowered my crate of supplies, careful when its weight shifted to my damaged hand. It was close to fully being a part of me again, but I didn’t want anyone seeing it pop off. As Mutt did the same with his, I took Timperina’s reins and quickly filled his empty hands with the lead.

  “You can unload her here,” he said. “It is all right.”

  I closed his fingers tightly around the leather strap, then met his gaze. “Take her with you.” The words came out like a whisper. Took every bit of willpower in me to speak them.

  Timp stomped her front hooves and backed away. I made sure Mutt didn’t let go.

  He shook his head. “She is your horse.”

  “She is my friend,” I corrected. “My very oldest, most loyal friend, who I have led into death and danger too many times to count.”

  Timp blew out and thrashed her head in defiance.

  “This is the place she knows,” I said to Mutt, though looked at her. “As much a part of the West as the dirt and canyons. I won’t take her away from that on a fool’s errand. She deserves to rest until her coat’s white as snow and her hooves grind off.”

  Timp was in a full-blown riot then. Finally, I decided to take her lovingly by the sides of the head, rubbing her ears, and dragging her close to mine. To look her right in the eyes as any good friends should. I had no idea horses could cry, but she was all welled up like a daughter losing her daddy.

  “Please, Timperina, don’t fight it,” I said, voice aquiver. “I don’t wanna say goodbye to you. But I gotta.”

  Her next whinny was more a screech than anything. What I would do to be able to shed a tear. Just one single drop to show her what she meant to me.

  “I know it should be your choice, I do,” I said. “But I’m making it. Taking your card off the table so Ace can’t play his. I’m done letting those I care for fall on my behalf.”

  I wrapped my arms around her big neck. Resting my head against her shivering side, I held her there tight so she couldn’t fight it, and listened to her heart as it thumped along, racing. While her body may have been old and close to breaking down, never her heart. Strong as an ox, she was. Tough as one too.

  My faithful steed.

  My Timperina.

  “I will look after her for all her time,” Mutt said, now holding the reins all on his own. I believed him with my whole dead damned heart.

  “I know you will, Chaska.”

  His head snapped toward me at the use of his people’s word for son. Tears filled his eyes.

  My attention returned to Timp. The longer I clung to her, the more she calmed, until her heartbeat was steady, her breathing measured, and she stopped shaking. I ran my fingers through her mane one last time—a mane I’d never actually felt, yet somehow knew like the back of my hand.

  “I love you, girl,” I whispered directly into her twitching ear.

  Then I pushed off and walked away. The sound of her neighing and whinnying tore me up inside like nothing other.

  I didn’t dare look back.

  Couldn’t look back.

  I knew if I did, I’d take her right back.