The Sentinels cemetery and sundown

When a dry, hacking cough forced its way out of Lasher's chest, Peregrine's brow furrowed. "That doesn't sound good," he murmured. He almost asked what Blue Willow thought of this respiratory ailment, then he felt a shiver of despair when he remembered: she had disappeared. "Blue Willow still hasn't returned?" he questioned, absolutely certain of the answer already; if she had been at hand, she would have been the one tending to him all this time.

"'Course," he replied when Lasher asked for them to walk together. "Care if we walk toward the borders? For what it's worth, I didn't mean to, like, sneak off like a total piece of shit. It just unsettles me a bit, hanging out in another pack's territory like this." Peregrine glanced at Lasher and shrugged apologetically. "I do want to thank Deirdre and—the others," he said, forgetting anyone else's names, "personally, before I take off. And I would've liked to see Oss too, though I don't feel comfortable infringing on her and the pups," he added.

"What else is on your mind?" he had to ask in the next breath, sensing some thoughts simmering just beneath the surface of Taltos's familiar gaze.