Calla

I didn’t see who moved first. The clashing of swords filled the air as the room erupted into chaos. Ingrid’s guards made quick work cutting down my human ones. Thud thud thud. Their bodies smacked onto the stone floor before they even had a chance to scream.

Mina’s frantic violin music filled the room as I shoved Ora behind me and took a step toward the outstretched blades of the Silver Wolves. I didn’t have time to consider why she was playing at this moment; I shifted on instinct, Grae and Briar quickly following suit. Our clothes ripped and shredded, falling to the floor as we shook the remnants off us. Belt buckles and weaponry clattered to the ground. We were so vastly outnumbered that our attackers didn’t even bother to shift and battle us in their furs. They circled us with ease as Briar, Grae, and I turned round, trying to decide where to attack first as the guards closed in.

Ingrid stepped up behind the circling guards, her cold eyes trained on Grae. “I’m sorry you were dragged into this by your wayward mate, Graemon,”

she said, her hands beseeching.

Grae snapped at the air in her direction but didn’t lunge, not with the halo of sword tips pointed at us.

“Please, Ingrid. Don’t be sorry,”

Evres said. “There’s nothing wrong with choosing the winning side.” He stooped into a crouch, his predatory smile glinting in the firelight as he stared at Briar. “You will be mine, Crimson Princess.” I snarled, but when I tried to shoot forward, a sword hovered at my neck and I paused. Evres pointed to the spot beside him like recalling a dog. “Now, come to me, and I promise to let your twin and her mate flee back to Olmdere with their tails between their legs.”

“Don’t you fucking move,”

I snapped at Briar in my mind as the sword at my neck pressed deeper into my fur.

“I . . .”

Briar’s voice wobbled. Her eyes darted between me and Evres, whose eyes danced with the delight of victory. He clearly knew she had no other choice.

“Briar, don’t. I already lost you once . . .”

“Which is why I can’t lose you again.”

A whine escaped my maw, my ears flattening as my twin padded across the floor and past the labyrinth of swords. Watching her walk through the wall of swords to Evres’s side made my entire soul ache. I couldn’t do this again, couldn’t have her taken from me, not after I fought so hard to get her back. But I knew if I was in her position, I’d make the same exact choice.

Evres patted Briar’s head. “Good girl.”

Her lip curled in a snarl, but he just laughed and rose to a stand.

A loud thud sounded to our right as two of Ingrid’s guards hit the ground.

“What the . . .”

I hadn’t noticed that Mina was still playing, nor that Ora now sat beside her with a short, tapered flute held between their bound hands. The two of them played a chaotic song that felt as panicked as my pounding heart. Another one of Ingrid’s guards fell and then another. But they weren’t dead . . . they were sleeping as if lulled under a magical spell—

I gaped, looking from Ora to the sleeping guards.

“You!”

Ingrid shouted, pointing at Hector and flicking her gaze to the musicians. “Kill them!”

Hector, who stood closest to Mina and Ora, paused for a split second, holding up a hand to his father and uncles to let them know he could handle them. His father had the audacity to look proud. He must’ve convinced Hector to betray us, but when? I raked through every moment that Hector hung back or went off on his own over the past few weeks. How had he managed this deceit right under my nose? But as Hector’s sword lifted toward the humans, advancing, I shoved the thoughts aside. I needed to take advantage of this distraction. In that split second, with everyone’s attention focused on Hector, Grae and I shot forward and attacked.

I tore out the calf muscle of the closest guard with my teeth. Blood sprayed across the floor as screaming filled the air. My canines sliced deep into the thigh of the next Wolf before he could shift. The third was smart, one of the few guards not in armor so he could readily shift. He was already in his furs by the time I got to him. Chaos filled the room behind me as Grae attacked the guards on the other side, but all my energy was on reaching Mina and Ora and protecting my human friends from the traitor Wolf I had trusted.

Another Silver Wolf stood between me and the musicians, snapping out at my feet and then lunging at my shoulder, but I dodged him every time. I kept half my attention on him and half on Hector as he stormed up the stairs toward Mina and Ora.

Mina’s violin halted but Ora kept going, and I knew from the crash onto the floor that another guard had fallen under their musical spell.

Instead of running away, though, Mina looked directly at Hector. Anger and hurt filled Mina’s eyes as she dropped her violin and walked straight up to him.

“Don’t,”

he murmured, his eyes filled with pain as she walked right up to him and placed the center of her chest at the tip of his sword.

“Go on,”

she signed.

He froze, utter devastation filling his face. He stole a glance backward as if afraid for his father to see, but his father and uncles were all swaying on their feet, being lulled under Ora’s spell. Hector turned back to Mina, his face screwed up in anguish.

“Mina,”

he whispered, shaking his head, the tip of his sword lowering slightly. “Please. Step aside. Please. I’m sorry.”

She didn’t move, didn’t sign, just stared him down, and I swore I could feel her heart breaking. Her eyes welled and Hector’s eyes welled along with hers.

“It was the only way to save Sadie,”

Hector said, his words rapid and pleading. “It was the only way.”

Mina leaned into Hector’s blade now resting against her belly, and he instantly took a step back.

“Kill me,”

she signed. “Your bitch snow queen ordered it.”

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 spraying from 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, , 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? My mated sister? 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 by your hands?” 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 you believed him?”

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 beg him?” 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. “When it’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, wet thunk.

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.

“Where’s Briar?”

I panted, suddenly running and flipping over bodies I knew weren’t hers. Evres was gone and Briar along with him. “Briar!” I screamed, running to the window where I spotted a sleigh halfway down the road, disappearing into the darkness. “Briar!”

I bolted, ruined leg be damned. I felt the blood of each step gushing down my leg. I knew soon I would bleed out, but I didn’t care. I had to get to her. She couldn’t be captured. Not again. I wouldn’t let them take her.

“Briar!”

Her name shredded my throat as I screamed it again and again. “brIAR!”

I didn’t feel the sting of the snow on my feet as I bolted down the mountainside, trying to keep my feet under me as my wounded knee buckled with each step.

“!”

Grae shouted. I heard him bounding up behind me, knew with my injury that he would catch me, but I kept racing forward anyway.

Grae’s bare arms banded around my torso, yanking me back as I flailed in his grip.

“No, no!”

I wailed, fighting against him. “Briar!” Her name was a defeated sob now.

“You need to shift, ,”

Grae gritted out, tightening his grip on me to the point of pain. “She’s too far gone now. You can try to connect with her that way, too. I promise—we will get her back, but first you need to shift, little fox, or you will kill us both.”

At that, I stopped fighting. The reality of my brash actions slammed into me. I was willing to give up everything, my life even, to save my twin. But I could never hurt Grae, and if I died, he’d die, too. The thought finally cooled my panic just enough so I could find that magical thread to pull inside me, imagining the pain of muscles bending, the pop of bones crunching, and then I shifted.

Grae released me and I landed on all fours, howling to the moon a mournful cry. I couldn’t feel Briar in my mind, knew she must be in her human form, and the thought of her trapped and naked in Evres’s sleigh made me howl even louder. I walked over the mountain’s edge, the sleigh already disappeared through the trees, too far even for my Wolf to catch. I knew I couldn’t go after her alone, not into Damrienn.

Something to my right caught my eye, and what I saw made me collapse into the snow. The ocean was ablaze. The boats fleeing to Olmdere were all on fire. My stomach roiled as I took it in—such an unfathomable sight. It washed over me in waves of panic and sorrow. All those humans gone. Nero’s message to them clear: try to run and you’ll die. His message to me just as clear: try to fight me and more will die. I let out a broken howl as I stared out at the sea of golden flames, grieving the broken promise I made to those humans.

I turned to Grae and shifted back into my human form again, the wound on my thigh still raw but the bleeding stopped and the wound closed.

“We need to get out of Taigos. Now,”

I commanded, finally coming back to my senses enough to give direction. “Before we have a vengeful Ice Wolf pack on our tails.” I darted back toward the mansion to get Ora and Mina.

“Breathe, ,”

Grae reminded me as I ran.

“Sweet Moon.”

I sucked in a breath through my teeth. “I think I’ve just started a war with Taigos.”