Page 37 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

The force suddenly shifted again, and with a mighty crack, the windowsill splintered and I was yanked out by the force of its power. Still clutching Navin’s arm blindly, I screamed, my mouth instantly filling with sand. My stomach lurched as I was vaulted upward, and then I plummeted, my heart jumping into my throat as I kept falling and falling and falling...

Calla

After an entire day spent twiddling our thumbs, finally,finally, we were summoned to afternoon tea with Queen Ingrid.

We wandered through the cold, austere palace, twisting and twining our way until I was completely lost.

Grae seemed to know where he was going, though, even asking the maid, “Greenhouses today?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” she mumbled, keeping her head bowed.

“I can lead the way,” he said. “You’re dismissed.”

The servant’s whole body slumped like he’d just saved her life, and she murmured, “Thank you, Your Majesty,” before rushing away.

“What was that about?” I asked as we followed Grae down a long, white hallway.

“Ingrid can get a bittemperamentalwith her staff,” he said.

I cleared my throat. She’d seemed cold but friendly enough when we’d met before. Now, I wondered if I’d misjudged her. Was it wrong of me to have such high hopes for her support? Or perhaps, like her second cousin, she was different to humans and Wolves.

When we turned the final corner, I gasped. Suddenly, we were confronted by the riot of green and vibrant rainbow hues of the greenhouse. Tropical plants and lush flowers blossomed throughthe space. When Grae opened the door, the heat blasted through, sweat instantly beading on my brow at the humidity.

“This place is incredible,” Hector said, craning his neck up to stare at the giant palms shading us from above.

“How?” Briar exclaimed, staring at the rays of sunlight that beamed from the rafters. “What sorcery is this?”

“Faery magic,” a sharp voice said, and we turned the corner to find Queen Ingrid sitting at a white iron table in the center of her little oasis. Two guards, one of them Klaus, stood at attention behind her. Klaus gave a little half wink to Briar as she came into view, and I had to bite back a snarl. He seemed determined to ignore that my sister had a mate. For her part, she somehow both ignored and acknowledged that wink so that he didn’t feel dismissed, and I tried not to marvel at the magic of my sister’s courtly etiquette.

“Graemon,” Queen Ingrid said with a surprising amount of affection as she stretched her arms out to Grae and kissed him on both cheeks.

I couldn’t help but note that she greeted him first. Traditionally, kings were always greeted first... but I was the sovereign of Olmdere, just as Ingrid was of Taigos. I didn’t know if it was pointed or simply out of habit, but I didn’t like the way Ingrid turned to my mate first instead of me. Finally, after a long embrace, the Ice Wolf Queen turned to me.

“Calla,” Ingrid said with equal laud, greeting me as if we were old friends. “Please do sit.”

There were four seats left at the table, and I was about to open my mouth to demand another chair for Mina when she waved me down.

“I’d prefer to play than converse anyway,” she signed, nodding down to her violin case that she clutched in her hand.

“Are you sure?” I signed back.

“Music will help lighten the mood.”

I snorted at that. “It certainly would.”

She bobbed her chin and started getting set up.

“And you must be the Crimson Princess herself,” Ingrid said, leaning into Briar and giving her hand a squeeze. She acted as if she hadn’t noticed the exchange between Mina and myself at all. “I can’t believe we are only just now meeting. I feel like I’ve known you your whole life.”

Briar’s smile was forced but only I would know it. She had such a practiced ease about her.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance, Your Majesty,” she said with a curtsy.

Hector was already scarfing down the finger food as we sat, and I kicked him under the table. Now was the time to act like a courtier, not a Wolf. He kept eating but slowed down ever so slightly.

Briar and Ingrid carried on chatting for several minutes as the rest of us listened to Mina’s violin in tense silence. Briar fell into the role of Ingrid’s best friend as if it took nothing to crack through the Queen’s icy exterior. The music helped calm my nerves a bit as I tried to politely sip my tea. I knew if Sadie and Maez were here they’d be laughing at me. There’s no way the two of them could’ve handled a tea party in the Taigoska palace gardens. When Briar had heard from Maez last, they were still in Taigos, too. That had been days ago, and I wondered if their trip was still going on uneventfully.

I worried, too, about Navin. I thought he was my friend. I thought he and I had grown close over our travels together. But it was clear now that there were many secrets he was hanging on to. Secrets that he and Ora shared and I wondered how much I really knew about my friends at all. Did I know them well enough to start a war to get them back? What secrets were so important that the world would burn if Ora didn’t keep them? Whether out of friendship or strategy, I felt bolstered once again in the decision to rescue the head of Galen den’ Mora.

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