Page 33 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

“But they do,” he murmured so only I could hear. His eyes were full of concern, and I reached out to touch his face.

“Only so much, though, love.”

“I should’ve slaughtered him for questioning you,” Grae growled. “He’s lucky I didn’t reach down his throat and pull out his spine.”

Hector snorted and said to Mina, “Mates.”

She nodded in agreement as she turned to the last doorway and entered her room.

As each of the members of the Golden Court disappeared into their accommodations, I leaned in closer and murmured into Grae’s ear. “You can defend my honor another time.”

“I’lltakeyour honor another time.”

His smile broadened, the cavalier, wild side of him bleeding through.

“I’ll take you up on that,” I said, any memory of the insult melting away in his warmth.

Sadie

Sand rained down on us as the giant beast rushed forward. I shielded my eyes with one hand, keeping them averted as I shoved Navin toward the wagon. The air whipped around me, and a long, thick leg speared into the sand in front of me. Skidding to a halt, I narrowly avoided crashing into it. Undulating like fish scale armor, the creature’s leg rattled as it moved. I crawled backward on all fours as another leg appeared, then another. I wanted to crane my neck up and look the beast in the eyes, but its massive body was creating a whirlwind of sand. Another rattling leg shot toward me. It seemed made of one plate of hard black skin atop another, making an unsettling sound like the tail of a rattlesnake.

“Sadie! Move!” Maez barked from the wagon.

I scuttled backward again right as a giant stinger slammed to the ground between my legs. Holy fucking Gods. What was this creature with quivering legs and a scorpion’s tail? Another stinger smashed into the sand beside the first. Two.Twofucking tails.

I rolled onto my belly and crawled toward the wagon, feeling the air swirling and grit caking my skin.

“Almost there, almost there,” Navin chanted as he stooped from the driver’s bench and offered out his hand. “Don’t look back.”

I opened my mouth to speak but another leg landed right in front of my face, the force of the step throwing sand into my mouth. Scrambling to my feet, I darted around the leg and up onto the driver’s bench. I wedged between Maez and Navin as he slapped Opus’s rear and the wagon jolted to life. But oxen were not known for their speed, and every other breath, I stood up on the driver’s bench to get a good look behind us at the monster that had almost impaled me with its stinger. I could barely make out the shape of its towering, spindly legs in the darkness, but those dozen glowing gray eyes shone like a beacon and moved over the horizon with preternatural speed.

“Whatisthat thing?”

“A crishenem.” Navin grabbed a handful of my tunic and yanked me back down. “And you staring at it is not helping. It tracks the moonlight reflecting from your eyes.”

“Hey Nav,” Maez said. “Next time we’re traveling through the desert at night, it’d be nice if you gave us a fucking heads-up that there are giant scorpion monsters here!”

“I’ve never seen one so close to the trail before,” he said too calmly for the near-death experience we’d just had... stillwerehaving if that beast decided to attack again.

Maez and I leaned back to look at each other from behind Navin. We clearly both had the same suspicion: Why would he have seen one in the first place? How did an Olmderian human—well traveled or no—have so much knowledge about Valtan monsters? There was no need for traveling musicians this far from the path. When would Galen den’ Mora have ever parked in the middle of nowhere? Yet Navin seemed to navigate this detour from the path to Rikesh with far too much ease...

“That thing has like fifty fucking eyes, Maez,” I groaned, shaking out my hands, my limbs feeling like a bunch of tiny beetles were crawling up and down them. “If it is still behind us in another minute, I’m going to Wolf out.”

“No Wolfing out,” Navin said tightly. “You’ll only provoke it more.”

“This is what my people do,” I reminded him. “My ancestors rid the world of monsters... well, most of them. They must’ve battled this creature before, too.”

Navin clicked his tongue, spurring the oxen on. “Not this one, they haven’t.”

“Andhowwould you know that?”

“I just do,” Navin said tightly, keeping his eyes focused on the road ahead. “Besides, it was entire Wolf packs,hundredsof Wolves, that took down the monsters of old. Not two.”

“Bit of a history buff there, aren’t you, Nav?” Maez asked.

Navin shushed her. “I’m trying to focus.”

“You can focus on the road all you like; it won’t make us go any faster.”

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