Page 80 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

“Just me,” I said, thinking about how he’d admitted as much to me in Taigos. How he’d wished I’d existed outside of anything else.

“No.” Navin seemed to spot my train of thought. “Only you and all of you,” he amended, dusting a soft kiss across my lips before pulling back again. “I wanteverythingthat you are—my stubborn, beautiful, recklessly brave Wolf.”

More tears streaked down my cheeks as he said those words—mymore than anything—as he claimed me for everything I was. I squeezed his hand back. I felt the truth in every syllable, recognized it reflecting back from within me. We’d battled monsters and fled attackers and fought each other until we were bloody, and yet I felt more steady in my soul than I ever had. I couldn’t fight it any longer. Navin was my steadiness, my solitude, my home.

Maez kicked open the door to the tavern and swaggered out with a mountain of mismatching garments piled over her shoulder. “Let’s get this show on the sky bridge before they come to their senses,” she said, pausing as she noted the tears streaking our cheeks and the way we held each other. “I’m just going to... um.” She skirted past us, tiptoeing up into the wagon. “I’ll just be inside. When you’re ready.”

She awkwardly stumbled into Galen den’ Mora, and Navin and I let out a unanimous laugh. I wiped the last of my tears, then stretched my arms skyward.

“We should probably go.” I moved to stand when Navin’s hand slid to the back of my neck and pulled my forehead back to his.

He brushed a featherlight kiss across my lips and whispered, “Thank you for asking me about him.”

“I want to know, Navin. I want to know everything.”

“Me, too.”

I deepened our kiss, my hands threading through his mussed-up hair, wishing we could pause the world and take this time tobe together, but knowing we needed to keep moving. I let my mouth tell him in all the ways my words failed me—stripped bare of all the rules and misbeliefs of Wolf life—I knew he and I fit together like the moon and the sun, and that was enough. Our love didn’t need to make sense to anyone else but us.

Calla

We traveled through near whiteout conditions. Several times I feared that our sleigh would get lost in the snow along with the sledge of gold that we towed behind us. Ingrid rode in the sleigh in front of us and another sleigh was packed with five of Ingrid’s best guards in front of her. Despite her assurances to the contrary, I doubted if things went sideways, Ingrid’s Wolf guards would bother to protect my court, especially the human ones.

When we arrived at the house at the top of the mountain, the air was so thin it was hard to take a deep enough breath. We’d passed through the other side of the storm clouds that clung to the craggy lower peaks. Up above the roiling frozen wind, the sky opened to twinkling golden stars. The constellations glittered so bright along with the half-moon that we could see the outline of the snow-covered peak and the mansion nestled into its side.

I lifted my chin to the Moon Goddess through the frosty window, hoping she protected us this night. My father’s golden crown sat on my lap, and I gripped it so tightly I was sure I’d have an imprint of one of the giant rubies on my palm. All of Nero’s calculations seemed intent on wounding me directly: taking Ora, demanding my father’s crown... He was trying to win a war of spirits before he ever put one soldier on the advance.

But I wouldn’t be broken by him, nor any Wolf, not even a King.

“I still don’t think you should’ve come,” Mina signed to Briar who kept nervously readjusting the white fur blanket over her lap.

“I still don’t thinkyoushould’ve come,” Hector cut in, looking at Mina. “What are you going to do if there’s hostilities? Hit them with that?” He nodded to Mina’s instrument case that rested against her shins. “If things go sour, you run, okay?”

Mina started to protest, but I held up my hands, halting the bickering. “I didn’t want to bring any of you, but I also didn’t want to leave any of you behind. So here we are.” I let out a tense sigh between my clenched teeth and leaned back against the velvet seat. My breath streamed out in icy whorls as I spoke. “I don’t trust leaving you in Taigoska without me,” I said to Briar. “Because I fear you’d bolt to Valta to find Maez the second I take my eyes off you.” Briar rolled her eyes. “And you,” I said to Mina, “I want with me because the Wolves haven’t treated you very well even with me watching. I don’t like the idea of leaving you alone with them.”

“I’m glad I’m here,” she signed and nodded to her violin case. “Maybe a little music will help lighten the mood.”

“We’re going to need more than a merry tune to contend with Nero’s soldiers,” Grae said tightly.

“I’ll take whatever I can get right now.” I nudged him with my knee from under the fur blanket that covered our legs. “As soon as we get Ora and deliver this gold, we are turning this sleigh around and getting the fuck out of Taigos.”

“Queens don’t say fuck,” Briar said.

“They do now.” I gave my sister a frustrated look. I was done playing her version of a queen. “Ido.”

As we neared the house, we saw the chimneys already billowing with curling gray smoke. Five horses peeked from their stable stalls, already unhitched from the two carriages parked along the snow-covered building. Ingrid’s mansion looked like a miniatureversion of her palace... perhaps miniature was a misnomer. It probably could easily house a hundred people.

Hector’s knee bounced anxiously from where he sat between Mina and Briar. The action seemed to make Briar fiddle with her blanket more while Mina kept picking up her violin case and setting it back down again. I could practically taste the nerves hanging in the air between us. I had to reassure myself again we were on Ingrid’s home turf. Between the two of us, we had several skilled guards not to mention our own fighting skills. Nero just wanted to humiliate me by taking my father’s crown and demonstrating how easily he could manipulate me with Ora. But I would take the humiliation to get my friend back. That’s all that mattered. I’d plan my revenge another day.

When the sleigh glided up to the mansion entrance, we didn’t unpack our belongings, only stalked up the slippery, frozen steps. The tall wooden doors were wide open and warm light beckoned us through the fire and into the open expanse of the first floor. A fire roared in a gray stone fireplace, the chimney shooting straight up through the center of the room. Around it stood three Silver Wolves, and a fourth stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the mountainside and to the ocean beyond: Evres.

I scoured the room again. Apart from a few sparse cushioned chairs and a carved wooden table and chairs, the room was echoey and vacant, much like Ingrid’s castle in the capital.

We heard the click-clack of the Ice Wolves’ Queen’s shoes climbing the stairs behind us, and then I caught her pausing in my periphery before gliding into the house and joining the Silver Wolves by the fire. She rubbed her hands together and stretched them toward the flames, such a casual act while her guards stood in rigid formation around her. Not a single cell in my body felt the cold, not as my heart raced in my chest and my hands gripped my father’s crown tighter.

“No Nero?” I asked as I tentatively followed my guards into the space. Mina hummed as she wandered over to the bench andopened her violin case. She started playing with such haste as if she couldn’t wait a single second for her music to begin, but it brought me little comfort as my stomach twisted into a knot. I tried to keep the fear out of my voice as I said, “I’d expected more of you.”

“We’re not here for a show of force,” Evres said, twisting from the window to look back at me. His eyes danced with delight as they dropped to the crown in my grip. “We’re here for a trade.”

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