Page 12 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

“Me too,” I said more quietly, remembering my thoughts from the other night. “We’ll be fighting our own families. Friends we’ve known since pups. I... I will defend Calla’s court with everything I have... but Gods, I wish I wouldn’t have to.”

Maez pursed her lips. “I think having a Gold Wolf mate makes it easier in some ways,” she mused. “I would destroy every friendship and home I’ve ever known to protect Briar.”

I toyed with the piece of bread in my hands before taking another bite. I wished I had that conviction. I wished I didn’t feel this tumultuous upheaval of everything I’d ever known.

Maez tapped a finger on the table. “There’s more Navin isn’t telling us.”

I hadn’t missed what I’d seen from her last night, then. I let out a breath through clenched teeth. “Yep.”

Leaning her forearms on the table, Maez said, “Sadie.” She waited for me to look up at her before she spoke again. “You’re going to have to get these answers from him.” I hated the way she said it, even if I knew she was right. “I know you two were once... close.” I dropped the bread and pulled out one of my knives as she continued, “I think you might need to be close again. Get him to trust you. Get him to tell you what he’s hiding. If it could help us prevent an outright war...”

I flicked my knife back and forth. “I could just stab him in the side, and I bet he’d spill whatever we wanted to know.”

Maez narrowed her eyes at me. “Think smarter.”

“I’m thinking like asoldier,” I countered.

“Think smarter,” she said again, and I almost laughed. Almost. “We need him to help us get to Rikesh undetected,” Maez pushed. “We need this ruse. If Nero knows we’re making a move for the Onyx Wolves, it might force his hand faster than we can prepare. So much is at stake. We’re on the brink of war, I can feel it, and...” She sighed and shook her head. “If you can’t handle it—”

“I can handle it,” I gritted out, knowing she was goading me but still falling for it anyway.

“Excellent.” Maez handed me a chunk of buttered bread. “Now go convince him you’re sorry so we can figure out what he’s hiding. You’re a spy for your Queen now.”

“Ugh.” My lip curled as I grabbed the piece of bread from her and stood. “Why can’t I just stab him again?” I groaned and stomped to the front of the wagon.

“Not everything can be solved by stabbing.”

I vehemently disagreed, but kept my mouth shut for now.

This was for the mission, I told myself for the hundredth time as I parted the heavy velvet curtain and climbed through the tiny window onto the driver’s seat. Navin’s humming stopped briefly as he glanced at me and then he carried on.

“Brought you something to eat,” I said, offering him out the bread. “Wh—” I glanced down and realized he wasn’t holding the reins. Instead, he sat with his ankle crossed over his knee and a green linen-bound book in his hands.

“Thank you,” he said, setting the book aside and taking the bread.

He continued to hum mindlessly as he ate. Very strange.I wasn’t sure if it was a nervous compulsion or what. Perhaps it was his way of coping with passing through this haunted place. It was said that thousands of people died trying to escape Olmdere during Sawyn’s reign. I could almost feel their souls still lingering heavy in the air.

The golden trees stretched out in the distance in front of us, the farmland dipping away to the wide expanse of molten ore.

I clambered the rest of the way through the window and sat beside Navin. “Don’t you need to be driving?” I asked, tipping my head to the slack reins.

“It’s a straight shot. There’s only one road through the Sevelde Forest,” he said through a mouthful of bread. “Besides, they know where we’re going,” he added with a jut of his chin at the oxen.

“Then why are you out here?”

“To give you some space.” He chewed thoughtfully for a while before adding, “I know Calla forced you to come.”

“Right.” The stilted silence stretched out between us again.Come on, Sadie, say something useful. Figure out what’s going on.“I... I’ve been thinking about it and... I’m glad I came, though.”

Navin’s eyes widened slightly, the faintest flicker of excitement—hopeeven—at my words before he schooled his expression again. We rolled on for several more heartbeats before he said, “I’m sorry I ruined everything between us.”

There was never anything between us.

That is what I wanted to say, at least. To let him know I’d keep pushing him away forever. I had a bit of excitement in his human world, just morbid curiosity, and now it was over. Instead, I said, “For reasons that you can’t tell me?”

“I...” He glanced up at the golden canopy that now stretched above us, the forest hanging in a perpetual autumnal glow. “My brother had... secrets,” he said very carefully, and I tried not to study him too closely.How do I act casual?I crossed my ankleover my knee and took in the gilded foliage. “Secrets I needed to make sure he didn’t share. Something I wouldn’t have the answers to if you rammed him through with your blade.”

I considered his words. “So it wasn’t done out of brotherly love?”

---