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 think you should’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. “I do.”

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 miniature version 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 and opened 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.”

My eyes scanned over the room again. “Where’s Ora?”

Evres’s smile widened. “We’ve brought your gold and crown, so where are they?”

“Come see this first.”

Evres beckoned with a hooked finger. “I want to show you our act of good faith.”

Briar looped her arm through mine, clinging close to my side as my guards flanked me on either end. As I slowly paced over, I noted there were three doorways and two sets of windows through which we could flee. To my right, Ingrid and her guards lingered around the table by the archway that looked like it led into the rest of the house. To my left, the Silver Wolves lingered by the fire. On the far wall was a small door that looked like it led down into a cellar. Hector hung back close to the doorway out to the sleighs, protecting our exit.

Evres held a hand out to me, but I didn’t take it as I approached.

“You are truly stunning,”

Evres murmured as his gaze slid up and down Briar.

I released Briar’s arm and moved her behind me as Grae stepped between the two of them, blocking Briar from Evres’s sight with his broad shoulders.

Evres let out a chuckle. “Forgive me,”

he said, holding up his hands and taking a step back. “It just seems such a pity that someone as regal as Briar Marriel isn’t a queen. Damrienn still mourns the loss of the Crimson Princess.”

“You mean the ‘queen’ Nero so easily pushed aside once he realized she didn’t have the power to give him what he wanted? You speak as if I’m dead, just as he did,”

Briar said, stepping around Grae. Clearly not cowed, her lips pinched into a tight frown. “I never wanted to be Queen. I only ever wanted a quiet life and a place to call home with my mate. is more of a queen than I could’ve ever been. They are the Queen Olmdere needs and deserves.”

She was looking directly at Evres, but I knew she was speaking solely to me. I wished we weren’t in this crowded room of enemies and tentative allies. I wished I could spin around and hug her. Whenever I faltered, my twin somehow knew to instill that confidence back in me.

“A quiet life, hmm?”

Evres’s voice dipped, more contemplative as he ignored everything my sister said about me and my leadership. “Well, you’ll always have a home with us in Damrienn, Princess. No matter what happens with Olmdere, you’re part of the Silver Wolf pack.”

“No,”

she said. “I’m a Golden Wolf. And this is my Queen.”

“We’ll see—”

“Enough.”

It was Klaus who cut him off. He took a pointed step toward Evres, the two Wolves sizing each other up as if ready to battle to claim Briar’s hand.

I scrubbed a hand down my face, wanting to shout that she already has a mate. If Maez were here, there wouldn’t be any of this peacocking. She’d probably have gutted a few of them by now.

“What is this act of good faith?”

I asked, stalking the rest of the way to the windows and cutting off Evres and Klaus’s staring contest.

At first, I couldn’t see anything, simply seeing the reflections of ourselves and the firelight, but as I leaned closer, I started to make out the shadowed outline of the mountains and the waves distorting the moonlight on the water.

“Do you see them?”

Evres leaned closer to the cool pane.

“See what?”

“On the water.”

I narrowed my gaze further, making out tiny dots on the water. Initially, I thought they were waves, but then I recognized the outlines. “Are those . . .”

“Boats,”

Evres said.

Burning dread coiled tight in my stomach. Were they warships? Was Nero planning on attacking our shores? Were they luring us out here to leave Olmdere defenseless?

I tried to steady my breath. “And who is on those boats?”

“Humans,”

Evres said. I gave him a wary glance and he continued. “We gave them a choice. Stay in Damrienn and obey the Wolf laws, get rid of their ridiculous human words.” He scanned me up and down, and I knew he was judging every inch of me, of who I was, of using the word “merem.” “Or they can leave.” I sucked in a sharp breath. “Any human who wishes to leave Damrienn has been granted safe passage to Olmderian shores. They are your problem now.”

I watched through the window in disbelief until my breath fogged over the glass. There must be a hundred boats on the water fleeing to my shores. “Thank you,”

I whispered, my throat constricting with bitterness. “Thank you for at least letting them leave.”

“Don’t thank me yet,”

Evres said. Mina’s music was a soft, slow tune that blanketed over the room as he spoke. “You will have to take care of all of them.”

“I will,” I vowed.

I’d make sure each and every one of them had a roof over their head and enough food to eat. I’d make a home for them better than any they ever had in Damrienn. I’d let them speak any language, pray to any Gods, and live the lives of their choosing. My hand drifted to my collarbone and the golden scar. I’d use every last piece of gold in my court and every ounce of magic from my dying wish to make it so.

Evres seemed disappointed, and I realized in this moment he thought this was supposed to upset me.

Yet another thing he and Nero clearly didn’t understand about me. It made me stand just a bit straighter, knowing that Nero thought he had a bead on me, but was still the nearsighted, narrow-minded ruler. These people made my kingdom stronger. It may take time, but I would make sure of that.

I looked over at the three remaining Silver Wolves. “Now where’s Ora?”

“Your father’s crown first,”

Evres said, looking to the crown still in my clenched hand. He reached for it, and I threw it at his feet.

The sound of the metal clanging against the stone floor filled the room. I wondered if the same sound echoed through the hall of Olmdere when Sawyn killed my father. Which Nero did nothing about. One day I’d hear the sound of Nero’s crown clattering to the floor—preferably with his head still attached. In the meantime, I’d make another crown in honor of my father’s memory. Evres muttered under his breath but stooped to pick up the crown. He dusted it off with his velvet jacket sleeve and nodded to one of the other Silver Wolves.

The burly Wolf trudged down the three steps and banged on the cellar door behind him. A fifth Wolf appeared, and he shoved a person through the doorway.

“Ora!”

I shouted, running over and catching Ora as they stumbled up the top step.

Their hands were bound in front of them, their mouth gagged, their eyes bloodshot and clothes crumpled, but they were alive and, from what I could tell, uninjured. I dropped to my knees in front of Ora, hugging them to me as they frantically muttered something through their gag.

“What?”

I quickly reached for Ora’s gag.

“It’s a trap, . Run!”

they screamed as the shing of swords being unsheathed sounded behind me.

I stood and whirled, finding not only the three Silver Wolves and Evres with their swords drawn and pointed, but Ingrid’s guards, too. We could fight, though. I was ready to fight. But then I stole a glance at the doorway and my heart plummeted.

Three men stalked up the steps, ones I recognized from Damrienn: Sadie and Hector’s father and uncles. I thought Hector would whirl on them, fight them off, but instead his father walked right up to his son and clapped him on the shoulder with a smug smile.

Hector didn’t meet my eyes as he lifted his sword and pointed it directly at us.