Page 6 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

“But, again, we don’t know that. So let’s focus on rescuing your friend first,” Maez said, poring over the war maps again. She slid the golden wolf paperweight back up to the autumnal forests of Olmdere.

It was only then I remembered that Maez had barely met Ora. The leader of Galen den’ Mora had become like family to us on our travels with them, but Maez had been locked in this very castle the entire time.

“We could dress like humans, go in through the servants’ passage,” Hector offered.

“I could set the southern hall on fire, and we could go in while everyone was evacuating,” Maez added. “We could dress as laundresses. No one would look at us twi—”

“No,” Grae interrupted, shaking his head. “My—Nerowill have guards checking everyone coming in and out now. A randomfire would only make him more suspicious. He’d probably rather let half the castle burn than let anyone in now.”

I flicked my knife back and forth faster, needing to do something with my hands. It felt strange to hear Grae call his father by his name. Not “my father,” or “pack leader,” or “king,” just Nero. I wondered if it still hurt him every time he spoke of his father—now his enemy. I’m sure it did. It hurt me to think of, too. Grae wasn’t the only one who lost his pack. Hector, Maez, and I had to leave our whole families behind, and this was yet another painful reminder.

“We need more people,” Maez said, tapping the snow-white tundra on the map.

“What do you have in mind?” Calla asked.

“We need to call upon your new friend Queen Ingrid. Maybe she’d be willing to send some Ice Wolves along with us or even garner an invite from Nero, and we could hide amongst her retinue. Either way, we’re going to need Taigos on our side if it really comes to war, so we might as well start that conversation now.”

“We’ll need more than just Taigos,” Hector said, smoothing his palm over the sand-covered kingdom of Lower Valta and down to the floating mountains that the Onyx Wolves called home. “We’ll need everyone. Valta, too. No one can match the Silver Wolf army alone.”

It hurt to hear my brother say it—something that used to fill us both with such pride. We were once part of that unstoppable army. Now, we were trying to figure out how to defeat them.

Navin twitched beside me, and I bolted up from my slouched position, leaning my forearms on my knees as I watched his eyelids flicker open. I was about to tell everyone that he was waking, but held it in. For some strange, selfish reason, I wanted him to see me first.

Sure enough, his eyes opened and flickered straight to me as if he knew I would be sat right there. His lips curved up in a soft smile for a split second that made whatever mended parts of meshatter all over again. Then, as if remembering what had transpired between us, his expression guttered and his face morphed into cold and serious once more.

“He’s up,” I called to the group, hating the feeling that coursed through me. What had I wanted him to do? There was no answer. Nothing he could’ve done would’ve made me ache any less. Too many feelings knotted together to pick them apart.

The group rushed over as Navin sat up with a groan and dropped his head into his hands. The healers had discerned that he’d sustained no life-threatening injuries—a few nicks and bruises, maybe a couple broken ribs, but the exhaustion and dehydration were probably what had caused him to pass out. It looked to me like he’d been kicked while he was down, judging by the purpling bruises down his spine and torso. A dark little part of me was satisfied with that. Good. Let him feel exactly as I did.

Calla perched on the lounge next to him and rubbed a hand down his back, asking, “What happened? Who took Ora?”

“Esh,” Navin cursed as he let out a shuddering breath. “Wolf soldiers.”

The whole room paused, waiting for him to say which kingdom.

“Soldiers fromwhere?” Calla asked slowly, clarifying, and I too wondered if Navin perhaps had suffered one too many kicks to the head. “Damrienn?”

“Yes,” he panted, each breath making him wince. He waved a finger in a semicircle across his chest, making the shape of the crescent moon that the Silver Wolves wore on their chest plates. “There were three of them. Wearing King Nero’s royal sigil. One was missing an eye.”

Instantly, Hector and I locked gazes. Our uncle—Aubron—it had to be. I only had one guess who the other two Silver Wolves were. My father and his two brothers were littermates and always together. The fact that Nero sent three of his oldest friends to kidnap Ora did not bode well for any of us. Usually lower-ranked henchmen were tasked with “human troubles” as he liked to put it,which meant either Nero knew that Ora was special to us, or my father and uncles had fallenfarout of the King’s good graces.

Navin’s grunt of pain snapped my attention back to him. Curse the fickle moon, I felt that pain as if it were my own body broken beneath my father’s boots. There would be no shifting for Navin, though, no magical healing that our change brought on. He’d have to heal at the snail’s pace of humans. I did not envy him that.

Maez’s lip curled as she surveyed Navin. “So this is Nero’s plan? Goad Calla into crossing into Damrienn by kidnapping Ora?”

“Why else would Nero take Ora, if not to provoke Calla?” Grae snapped, pacing back and forth down the table’s length. “That’s what he does. He pushes you into making rash decisions. He uses one person to torture another.”

I ground my teeth at that, remembering the ways Nero used Grae’s mother to keep Grae in line. He did that with many of my own family, too. There was one thing Nero was a master at and that was manipulating his pack through fear—a fear that at one point in my life felt a lot like loyalty.

“I don’t know what they’d want with Ora.” Navin looked pointedly at the floor and merely shrugged his shoulders. It was a strangely cagey action coming from someone as earnest as him. Maez and I exchanged glances. She clearly thought he was lying, too.

“What do you know that you aren’t telling us?” I pushed, making those bronze eyes lift to meet mine. I hated the way that eye contact made my whole body buzz, as if he could see right to the very core of me.

“I don’t know what the Silver Wolves want with Ora,” he repeated a little more firmly. That only made me warier. Besides Maez, the rest of the room seemed to believe him, but I knew Navin was holding something back. Still, I tucked my desire to interrogate him aside for later.

“So what’s our plan?” Maez asked after staring hard atNavin for a few more seconds. “Whatever his reason for taking Ora, Nero is making moves.”

“Now,” Calla said, looking around the room. “Whatever we’re doing, we need to do it now. Starting with calling in every ally and favor we have.” She looked at Grae. “We should go to Taigos. Convince Ingrid to help us with the rescue mission and secure her support for whatever Nero has planned next.”

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