Page 2 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

Yep, I absolutely believe all of that.

“Thank you.” I whirled with newfound bravado, reaching for the door.

“Anytime,” Briar said, and Maez added, “Well, notanytime. Maybe let’s plan a time for you to drop by next—Ow!” Without looking, I knew Briar had smacked her by the sound. I wondered how many intimate moments I’d interrupted over the last few months.

As I opened the door, I found my brother, Hector, with his fist raised, poised to knock.Looks like I wasn’t the only one interrupting the newly reunited mates.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

Hector shook his head at my attire, a constant disapproving frown on his face. He wore his new royal armor: black battle leathers with plated gold accents. He looked both royal and lethal, a deadly combination of elegance and strength. I, however, was out of uniform, favoring plain brown trousers and a tunic that came down to mid-thigh that hid the plethora of weapons I wore underneath.

“The Queen has summoned you,” he said sharply in that scolding brotherly voice he used whenever I’d pissed him off. Why did my only sibling and Ibothhave to take up the family business of fighting for a living? Why couldn’t he have been a baker or something?

“Great,” I muttered, shooting over my shoulder to Briar and Maez, “I’m being summoned.”

“Yes—queens can do that,” Hector said.

“Oof,” Maez said.

“Good luck,” Briar added.

I couldn’t dance around it anymore. Calla would make me face them. They’d probably strip me of my title and kick me out. I had been ignoring my responsibilities to Calla for long enough, losing myself in taverns and gambling halls, trying to forget all the ways I’d betrayed myself. Maybe this was a good thing, then. Be done with the farce and focus on getting really, truly, stupidly drunk.

Hector stepped to the side to let me pass. I skirted around him, not wanting to look him in the eyes. His very presence felt like one giant “I told you so,” and I didn’t need him gloating over the pain in my chest that I refused to name.

I stormed off down the cottage path, lined with autumnal flowers in burgundies and marigolds that Briar had so carefully curated like she was a whimsical fucking faery. I fought the urge to stomp through the beds like the grumpy storm cloud I was. Time to face the consequences of my actions. Time for the punishment I’d been waiting on this last month as I fritteredaway my coins on a mission to find the bottom of every bottle of Olmderian wine. Time to lose this newfound family I’d done nothing to deserve.

With Hector at my back like my own bloody executioner, I made my way back through the forest and toward the city, dreaming of slitting Navin’s throat for making me feel this way... and then slitting my own for having such a thought.

I tried to waylay Hector with the promise of drinks on me at his favorite local tavern of choice, but he was having none of it. My big brother marched me through the forest on the outskirts of Olmdere City, and I walked tethered to him like a horse with an invisible lead rope.

His silence was practically saying,At leastoneof us can honor our duties.

I could not let such a lack of statement go unchallenged. “So how’syourhuman?” I muttered, storming through the deep leaves with an ever-quickening pace.

“She’s not my anything,” Hector said tightly. “Not yet at least.”

“But you want her to be,” I prodded with the deft ability of a sibling who knewexactlyhow to get under her brother’s skin. “You’ve grown close since her sister’s passing.”

Mina had stayed behind when Galen den’ Mora rolled out of Olmdere, both to grieve the death of her twin, Malou, and to help Calla with the reconstruction. She now sat on the queen’s council and advised Calla on all sorts of issues. I’d been too busy with my own pursuits to notice my brother’s closeness to her before. But since her sister died at the hands of Sawyn, Hector, of all people, seemed to be there the most to pick up the pieces.

“Bringing up her sister’s passing is low even for you,” Hector said. “You act as if I’m only comforting her to gain something.”

“Aren’t you?”

Hector grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around.“First off, screw you for ever thinking that of me. Second,enoughof this, Sadie,” he growled, a hint of his Wolf coming out as he spoke. Two humans walking down the forest path in the other direction gave us a wide berth. “You’ve always been a bitch, but now you’re just downright cruel.”

“Keep pursuing her, and you’ll find I’m relatively mild in comparison to what you’ll get from others,” I said, instinctively grabbing one of the knives from my thigh belt and flicking it back and forth. Sweet Moon, I wished I could stab it into someone right now, preferably a tall bronze-eyed musician.

“I’m not a sk—” He caught himself before he said it, but we both knew the words about to tumble out of his mouth: “skin chaser.”

It was an insult slung at Wolves who cavorted with humans. Now, as members of a Wolf-human court instead of a pack, those words didn’t apply here, and yet I still couldn’t shake them. Whether I wanted it or not, the shadow of everything I was raised to believe loomed over me. Losing those beliefs wasn’t as easy as shedding a too-tight coat. Layer upon layer and I still found myself wincing at the insult skin chaser.

I certainly didn’t want my brother to have to go through that, too.

Still, I couldn’t justsaythat to him—Iwasa bitch, after all. So I pulled out of Hector’s grip and kept walking, hating how he and I both still acted more like Silver Wolves than Golden Courtiers. “No talking about your human,” I said more to myself than my brother. “Touchy subject. Got it. Not that it will matter after Calla banishes me for ignoring my duties.”

“Look.” Hector cut in front of me again. “I know this has been hard. All of it. But I’m here, for what it’s worth, and I will always have your back.”

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