Page 89 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

His eyes were glassed over as he shook his head. “I told you to run. Mina, please.”

“You betray us, but use ‘please’? How strange. But no, I won’t let you hurt Ora.” Mina advanced on him again and Hector took another step back. The normally quiet and shy Mina’s eyes were filled with ferocity as she signed, “You’ll have to kill me first, Hector. You can step over my dead body. I’m not stepping aside.”

Hector froze for another second before lowering his sword. “I can’t. I can’t do it.” Tears filled his eyes. “I can’t hurt you.”

“You already did.”

He stole a glance at Ingrid and then turned and fled through the open doorway.

I was so distracted watching him run into the snowy night that I didn’t notice the Silver Wolf’s last lunge. I tried to duck but he bowled me over. Flailing, I quickly tried to right myself as his teeth sunk into my leg. I let out a piercing yowl as he tore and yanked, practically pulling my leg from the socket. I curled back on him, my tooth snagging on his ear and ripping it in two but still he yanked and tore.

This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be how I died. Not after all I’d fought for, my dying wish still unfulfilled.

I screamed and realized it was my human lungs, blood sprayingfrom my thigh. The air whizzed with static, and the Wolf finally released me, screaming with pain as he was dragged from me. I looked up to see Briar’s golden fur matted in blood as she flipped him on his back and dug her teeth into his belly.

Evres and Klaus, still in their human skin, battled behind her. Both were blood spattered and looked exhausted, spinning round and round each other, both jockeying to get closest to Briar.

“You can’t have her!” Klaus shouted, striking again and again, but Evres was faster and easily maneuvered out of each hit.

“Are you taking back our agreement?” Evres asked too casually for the bloodshed all around us.

“Let her go, Klaus!” Ingrid screamed in Taigosi. “Don’t be a fool.”

I scrambled to sit up, taking in the absolute carnage all around me. Pain radiated through my leg, so acute that I couldn’t control the shift. I yearned to return to my furs and their healing magic, but the severity of my injury made it difficult to control.

I rolled to find Grae lying on his side pinned under Ingrid’s boot, her sword at his throat and another Ice Wolf towering over him. Everything in me snapped at the sight of her sword against my mate’s throat. I managed to stand on one wobbling leg and limped over, moving as fast as I could to barge into Ingrid’s side. She barely budged as she shoved me back to the ground, but Grae managed to use the distraction to separate himself from Ingrid. He went after the other Ice Wolf as I circled Ingrid with a growl.

With her sword trained on me, she smiled. “It’s politics, Calla, dear,” she said with a shrug. Her crown was askew, her white dress caked in gore, but she still acted like she was hosting a morning tea. “I saw how attached my cousin was growing to your sister. We had to get rid of her.”

My skin slipped across the blood-slick tiles as I moved backward toward the dead guards behind me. I needed a weapon. Ingrid smiled as I palmed a dagger that was kicked across the floor from Mina. She nodded to me and kept playing.

Ingrid chuckled as I rose on shaking legs. Her sword hand was steady, and I couldn’t find a way past it.

“You’ve sacrificed everything you believe in,” I spat. “Just to get rid of my sister? Mymatedsister? You and I could’ve taken Nero. We could’ve won. We could’ve made this world better.”

Briar had miscalculated. She knew getting close to Klaus would make Ingrid want to send her away, but she hadn’t bargained it would be into the hands of our enemies.

“I still believe in progress, you know,” Ingrid said, bristling as if she was the one being insulted. “I believe in fighting for advancement. I believe in a world better than the one Nero has envisioned.”

“And how are you going to bring that world about when you’re under Nero’s thumb?” My eyes dropped to her sword. “With all of your allies killed byyourhands?” Her mouth pinched but she didn’t speak. “You know Nero will promise Taigos to Valta?”

“I know no such thing,” Ingrid sneered. “He promised we’d be left out of your squabbles if we gave him the Crimson Princess.”

“And youbelievedhim?” I let out a disgusted laugh. “I didn’t realize you were so shortsighted.

“And now so alone.”

Suddenly Grae was beside me, a sword in his hand, and Ingrid’s eyes swept from him to the room behind us. Realization dawned on her face. We were the last two conscious warriors in the room, and we had our blades trained on her.

She immediately dropped to her knees. Her hands held up, pleading, but not to me, to Grae. I shook my head, a chuckle of surprise escaping my lips.

“Graemon, think about what you’re doing,” she besieged him. “I will make a deal with you. I will give you soldiers, please.”

“You look to him even now?” I said, my voice dripping with disdain. “You beghim?” I stepped forward, grabbing her by the pale hair and yanking her neck back to meet my eyes. “You say you want a better world, but only for you,” I seethed. “Whenit’s all stripped bare, Ingrid, you don’t even believe in your own words. You still seek out a man to beg. But no one puts a blade to my mate’s throat.” I dropped my mouth to her ear. “And no man will save you from my steel.”

Her eyes flew wide a split second before I drove my dagger into her heart. She gaped unseeing at the sky as I twisted my blade deeper into her chest—the Queen who I’d tried so hard to please I’d nearly lost myself, the Queen who betrayed us anyway. Her eyes rolled back, and I snatched the crown off her head as her limp body fell to the ground with a sickening, wetthunk.

The room had gone quiet. Mina and Ora huddled together against the far wall, eyes wide and scanning the sea of bodies between us. I searched over the bodies, the silence making my heart beat faster and faster as I realized who was missing.

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