Page 46 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

I shifted to heal my injuries and regain some strength, but even belowground, the heat was too much for my furs. It was degrading putting Navin’s shirt on after I shifted back, but I didn’t want to be naked in front of these humans who already only saw me as a beast.

I stayed up long after the sun had faded from the sky, plotting how I might be able to end him, but knowing if I did, Rasil would kill me when he returned. Even in my Wolf form, I wouldn’t be able to battle the samsavet, crishenem, and scorching sun and survive. I shuddered at the memory of those many hands pulling me under again.

Maybe Maez would come back for me? Would she even know where to look? Maybe she didn’t survive the sandstorm... and if she did, she surely would think Navin and I had perished. Even if she did start looking, she’d never find this hidden place, nothing more than a mirage in the desert.

I tried to sing the notes that had opened my cell before, but no matter how many times I tried, the iron didn’t budge. How did they wield the power of song? What made them special? How long had this secret group been working right under our noses?

I lay there turning over everything I learned in my head. There was a secret sect of humans who possessed magic... magic that was used through song. I knew Wolves possessed the magic to shift. Faeries possessed the magic to grant dying wishes. And sorcerers, they wielded death magic. But humans wielding a musical sort of magic? That I’d never heard of before.

It made me wonder how much more magic existed that I’d not heard of.

If Galen den’ Mora was a part of this secret society, then why did they offer to give us a ride into Olmdere? They admitted toknowing full well we were Wolves. Weren’t Wolves the enemies of these Songkeepers? I repositioned myself uncomfortably in my cell. From my reception, it certainly seemed so.

I scratched the grit from my ears. None of these choices made sense. Why did Ora and the others fight to put Calla on the throne? Were all the badge-wearing musicians who showed up that day part of these Songkeepers, too?

I was roused by the horses being readied long before the dawn, sleep eluding me as my many troubled thoughts ruminated. It sounded like a handful of people scuffling about above me—dishes clanging, feet shuffling, boisterous banter. As the whinny of horses faded into the distance, the sandaled feet appeared on the steps again.

“Is it broken?” I asked by way of greeting. “Your nose?”

“No,” Navin said, squeezing the bridge of his nose as he stalked over to me. “But it still hurts if that makes you feel any better.”

“It does a little,” I grumbled.

“Are you still planning on killing me?” he asked as he rubbed one hand mindlessly across his swollen neck.

“Probably,” I hedged. “But only once I’m free of this place. To kill you now, I’m sure Rasil would be delighted to end me in the cruelest way possible. Probably have his monster drown me in sand.”

“Sadie—”

“You really had me fooled for a while there,” I said bitterly. “The sweet musician. The human who just wanted to hold my hand and take me to dinner. Was that all part of some twisted joke?”

“No.”

“Were you telling all of your Songkeeper friends in Galen den’ Mora about how you were toying with the Wolf girl?”

“No,” he said a little louder. His eyes filled with that strange anger, menace I’d never seen in him until the past few days.So this was the real Navin, the one hiding under the mask.“You likedthat I was sweet back then. That I was different from the harshness and aggression of the Wolves.” He folded his arms across his chest, seemingly growing another inch taller with the force of his personality alone. “I am still him, that human who wanted to hold your hand and take you to dinner and kiss you slowly in the rain.” He inclined his head and stepped closer to the bars. “But there’s another side of me, too. One that is a lot closer to who you are than you’d like to think. A darker part, one that is probably what really drew you to me in the first place.”

I flashed my teeth at him, nipping the air. Being attracted to him had never made sense to me. A human. An artist. He seemed so sweet and gentle, and part of me was allured by that, yes. But another part of me knew all those things would never be enough, and yet he still pulled me into his orbit as if under a spell. Now, at least I understood a little more why. It had nothing to do with his so-called darkness.

It had to do with the fact that he cast his literal magic on me. No wonder my desire for him was so incongruous to any logic. It was just his power muddling my brain.

A memory flashed back to me. One I was only now willing to truly scrutinize. I’d been surprised the night the Silver Wolves tried to take Navin by how much of a fight he put up. He managed to hold his own againstthreeWolves for several minutes before they captured us and beat us into a bloody pulp. I had thought it had all been me, my strength and skill—or blind luck—but now I understood what had really happened. Navin was faster and stronger than he’d seemed. He’d been hiding his true skills from me all this time.

Yet he wanted me to trust him.

“Before we were attacked by that crishenem,” I said, remembering the way he pinned me on that rock, the wanton look in his eyes. “It started to come out. The real you.”

Navin paused at the bars, tossing a ball of plum fabric between his hands. “I want to explain this all to you. Everything,” he said, his words rasping from the near-death choking I’d deliveredthe day before. “You’re the first Wolf that has ever entered the refuge—”

“You call this place a refuge?” My eyebrows shot up. “It is a palace if ever I saw one. It is a grand citadel.Refuge?” I huffed, shaking my head at him.

Navin let out an exasperated sigh. “Rasil has granted me permission to tell you our histories in the hopes you’ll agree to help us with something. That is an unprecedented honor—”

“I’m feelingquitehonored,” I cut in before he could continue. “But first I want to know why Rasil would agree to that in the first place. At what price?”

“A million gritas.”

I gaped at him. “I’m sorry, I must have sand in my ears.” My eyes narrowed. “I thought you just said amilliongritas.”

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