Sadie

The screams were cut off in a flash of blinding emerald light. I cowered, shielding my eyes from the brilliant green, and when I opened them, I was surrounded by a mountain of bodies. Wolves and humans alike lay stacked one atop the other all around me, their lifeless charred bodies still sizzling from the bolts of lightning. The smell of cooking flesh turned my stomach again as I took in the utter carnage and shocking silence. I’d seen this magic before, watched as Sawyn’s bolts of magic carved up Calla, but this . . . this was an unfathomable amount of slaughter and it all happened in a single flash.

I blinked, swatting away the smoke circling my head to take in more of the room, but Maez was nowhere to be seen.

Rising onto shaking feet, I stumbled forward across the piles of bodies. I slipped across the sticky, wet tiles, and when the smoke cleared enough to take in the whole room, I spotted Navin lying limp upon the dais.

I screamed his name, running toward him in the unsettling quiet. Hundreds of bodies and not a single sound except for the slap of my bare feet on the tiled ground. I slid the last few paces to him and dropped to my knees.

I searched his body for burn holes, my eyes roving over him, but he was completely unscarred. The cut at his temple was gone, the trail of blood down his nose was now dried, the nick of a dagger cut at his neck had disappeared. I pulled him up to my chest, sobbing as I cried out his name.

His arms twitched beside me, and then his hands lifted, circling around me and pulling me farther into him.

“I’m okay,”

he groaned, pushing us up into a seated position. He cupped my cheeks, wiping my frantic tears with his thumbs as he leaned his forehead against my own. “I’m alive.”

“Wh-what happened?”

My voice trembled as I held him tighter. “The vase?”

He shook his head, refusing to let me go as I tried to search the gory space. “It’s gone. She took it. I . . .”

His voice cracked and tears misted his eyes. “I’m so sorry, .”

“Stop,”

I croaked. “You saved us. You saved my life.”

“It’s my fault she’s a sorceress.”

More of my tears fell at his confirmation as if I could’ve denied what had truly happened a little longer, but now that he said it, I knew it was true. “It’s why I wanted to get the vase away—so that it couldn’t be used to do exactly what I did. It’s my fault that dark magic was conjured. It’s my fault. All of this. I didn’t know what else to do.” His words flew from his mouth. “I thought they were going to kill you and—”

I silenced him with a kiss, tasting the salt of my tears on his lips. I kissed him slowly and deeply, needing that anchor for myself from the shock as much as for Navin himself. I felt my pounding heart slow, my trembling hands steady, as my lips molded to his own. His fingertips pressed into my blood-slick bare skin. He pulled me flush against his chest, his whole body shaking so violently that his teeth chattered.

“Okay.”

I took a steeling breath. “Okay. We need to . . .” My mind reeled as I pressed my forehead to his again. “Panic later. We need to get out of here. Now.”

Navin cleared his throat, swallowing back more tears as he rose on wobbling feet. “My injuries,”

he said, looking down at his tattered clothes streaked in red. “They’re gone. H-how?”

“Panic and answers later,”

I reminded him as I stooped and snatched the flowing black robes from Luo’s dead body and hastily wrapped them around myself. “Tadei will surely return with more soldiers,” I said. “You told me that there were Wolves who lived on all of the surrounding islands, too. The pack hasn’t been wholly destroyed, and the fact that we had a hand in their King’s demise means we’re enemy number one. We need to run before they come after us.”

Navin’s hands clenched into fists. “I’d like to see them try.”

He let out a low resonant whistle, and the dragon reared up on its hind legs again.

My mouth dropped open as I sized up the creature. It was beautiful and terrifying in equal measure. “Gods,”

I breathed, staring as I laced the inner belt together until the obsidian fabric drowned my body. “How long will you be able to control it?”

“Long enough to get Galen den’ Mora out of this place,”

Navin vowed. “Hopefully long enough to get us back to Olmdere. However long it takes.”

“You remember the song from the vase?” I asked.

“Only parts, only some,”

he considered, wrapping his arm around my side and holding me to him as he descended the dais. “But enough for now. Let’s go.”

We stalked through the carnage of the room, Navin muttering ancient words under his breath, half song, half chant, and the dragon followed behind us, each stomp making the ground rattle. I shuddered at the sound of it settling its wings back against its body like the flap of a sail.

The halls were empty as we walked back down toward the courtyard. In the city far below, people were still screaming and fleeing. A fireball hovered in midair over the golden domes of the palace, its green flames licking high toward the sky and spreading out across the land like swirling emerald ink. People scattered in every direction, leaving a path of chaos in their wake, as we walked swiftly toward the wagon. No one paid us any notice as they ran. I looked back one last time, stealing a final glance at the palace and thinking of all the bodies that lay inside. If a war had been brewing before, now it had well and truly begun. The massacre of Rikesh would never be forgotten as long as the Onyx Wolf pack lived. Nor, I thought, the birth of a new sorcerer. My eyes fell to the tiled murals along the palace wall, imagining the story fitting in amongst the tales of triumph.

A cloud of shimmering green ashes glittered through the sky, heading in the direction across the far river toward Damrienn. I prayed that trail of dark magic meant Maez was heading to Highwick to rescue her mate, but also worried she was only going to bring more death and destruction. Would she even care about Briar now that she’d given over her soul to that dark power?

As we navigated through the crowds, panicked tears slipped down my cheeks. I couldn’t reconcile what had just happened. In a flash, she was just simply gone. There was no coming back from such magic. As more tears fell, I knew I’d lost Maez to it. I’d lost my best friend forever.

We rolled through Eshik without a single follower. No one peeked out windows and no one watched us flee. Galen den’ Mora rolled onward like a lone carriage at a funeral procession. Even long after the dragon flew off ahead of us, roaming the skies out toward the Stoneater River, we were met with silence. Did the people know the driver of this wagon had the power to conjure monsters? Did they know a sorceress was on the loose? Either the news of the palace battle had preceded us, or the sight of the flying monster had everyone so afraid that they’d locked down their cities.

The creak of our wagon wheels sounded foreboding in the darkness of the night from one unwelcome island to another. Not a single candle flickered on a windowsill. No songs were sung from rooftops. No celebrations in the town square. Not even the seediest taverns had their doors open. The streets suddenly seemed too wide, the city too big.

As we hit the road to Sankai-ed, I began to feel so hollow; I wondered if any of it had been real. It felt like waking from a nightmare. As the adrenaline wore off, the haunting silence mocked me. No matter how I scrubbed in the waters of Galen den’ Mora’s bathing spigot, I couldn’t seem to wash off the blood. It lingered, as if I was limned in pink, and the smell . . .

I was a soldier; I’d killed before. I thought I was immune to the scent of death and the sight of gore. But never, never, had I been in such a melee, not even when we raided Sawyn’s celebration in Olmdere. The Rooks had laid down their weapons then. They had surrendered . . . but that was probably because they were human.

Wolves never surrendered when their pack leader was under threat. They would’ve never stopped coming for us. We probably only escaped Eshik because the Wolves hadn’t regrouped to the orders of their new King, Tadei. Tadei and his guards were seemingly the only ones willing to leave Luo to his fate. That chaos and confusion had probably saved us. But a war half-won was not won at all, and the fact that some Onyx Wolves remained alive meant there were plenty who would be wanting to avenge their pack and family.

And now we were without Maez and with only half the vase’s song.

My panic eased only slightly as we crossed to the other side of Sankai-ed, still waiting for the Onyx Wolves to appear and chase us. Navin stayed out in the front of the wagon for the first several hours, making sure the oxen found the right way. But as the oxen ventured onto the rope bridge to Lower Valta, Navin finally came back through the window, finding me pacing back and forth. I felt like a Wolf chasing my own tail, the anxiety still strong even though exhaustion was taking hold. I didn’t know if I needed to vomit or cry or stab something. I couldn’t pin down a single shot as sickening images flashed one after another through my mind.

“.”

Navin walked over to me and pulled me into his arms. “Breathe,” he said like he’d commanded so many times before. It wasn’t until my cheek pressed against his chest that I felt its wetness. I hadn’t even realized I’d been crying. “We’re safe in Galen den’ Mora,” he reassured me. “No one breaches this wagon without our welcome.” I trembled in his arms. “You’re so cold,” he said, lifting my still wet hair off the loose fabric of my vest.

“I feel hot,”

I replied even as I trembled more. Everything in my body felt upended, the turmoil inside of me bringing the strangest reactions forward.

“We’re safe,”

Navin said again, stroking a hand down my back as he folded himself around me, clearly trying to warm me up. “We made it out.”

“But so many didn’t,”

I said, my voice choppy and breathing erratic. I pulled back. “Rasil, he—”

Navin swept his thumb over my bottom lip. “He will pay for what he has done. The Songkeepers will destroy him for conspiring with the Onyx Wolves.”

“I can’t believe he betrayed you like that,”

I whispered.

“I can.”

Navin’s eyes darkened. “I should’ve fought him ages ago. I should’ve ousted him from his position for his violent aspirations. I knew he was jealous and petty, but even I didn’t know he’d go this far.”

“But—but he wanted a world without Wolves?”

I searched Navin’s face, trying to understand.

“And if he’s memorized the vase’s songs like his grandfather once did, he will have it,”

he said. “The Onyx Wolves don’t know what dark dealings they’ve entered into by letting him simply read it. Rasil probably promised Luo to use the magic for him, and the Wolf King probably couldn’t fathom a human turning such magic against him.”

“Do you think Rasil remembers all the songs on that vase?”

I asked. “How much do you remember?”

“If there’s one thing Rasil was good at, it was sight-reading. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has it all now—especially if he had even an hour with the vase. As for me, I know enough to be a danger to everyone around us,”

Navin said, his eyes bracketing with pain. “I remember enough to do more harm just like I did with Maez.” He swallowed thickly as he continued rubbing my arms up and down. “But there was something on that vase I hadn’t expected,” he added. “Etched into the stone was a song that . . . I think . . . I think there might be a way to control monsters like I did the dragon without conjuring new ones.”

My eyes widened. “Without bringing more dark magic into the world?”

“Yes.”

“Control others’ monsters?”

He thought on it. “Yes. I may have to play with some of the notes to make sure I have it right, but I know the melodies and the tempo of the song . . .”

My body still shook, but my senses began to sharpen from their whirling panic to more focused intention. “So we could go around collecting an army of monsters to join this war? To fight on our side? Without bringing more dark magic into the world?”

Navin’s brow dropped low over his eyes, clearly unhappy with my train of thought. “Possibly,”

he hedged.

“Possibly,”

I echoed. “I know you find this repugnant, but we’re past the point of musical theory, Navin. Our list of enemies is growing by the minute. We have to find a way to fight them, and this might be it.”

It took him a while to say anything. I could see how much the idea of that—of using the song where it might hurt people—devastated him. And with the aftermath of what he’d just sung, I understood his hesitancy. This was where we differed, he and I. He was, at heart, an artist.

I was the warrior.

And because of that, it was up to me to remind him how warriors thought. How Nero thought.

“It might be our only hope,”

I said softly.

“There might be more answers in the library at the refuge,”

Navin said.

“We can’t go back there.”

I shook my head. “What if Rasil returns? Is there anywhere else? Anywhere we can get answers but wouldn’t be found?”

Navin considered me and I could see the wheels in his mind spinning. “There’s a ruin south of Allesdale, deep in the woods. It used to be a temple of knowledge. Ora and I found it from an old Songkeeper’s map we discovered in the bottom of a drawer.”

Navin smoothed a hand down my arm. “No one knows it’s there but us.”

“Damrienn?”

I balked. “You want us to go to Damrienn?”

“No Wolf has set foot that far south in centuries,”

Navin said confidently. “There’s barely a human around those parts. It might be the safest place for us and give us time to figure out this magic. While the Silver Wolves are looking north, we move south.”

I pulled from his grip, my senses honing further as my brain moved beyond shock and started to formulate a plan. “An excellent direction to attack from, too.”

I could tell this response made Navin uneasy, but again, I was the warrior. And now was surely a time of war. “Does this place have a whispering well?”

“It does.”

His lips curved into a frown. “But there are closer ones on the trail there, too.”

“We need to update Calla on everything that’s happened.”

I nodded. “And we search the temple of knowledge for answers on reversing dark magic, too. There must be a way.”

“,”

Navin pleaded. “I don’t think that’s possible. I don’t know that we can save Maez.”

“We will!”

I shouted, the panic rising in me again. “We will save her. We have to save her.”

Navin slowly slid his hands down my bare arms, letting out a soothing shush. “We will get to the temple soon,”

he assured me. “And all of those questions we will begin to find answers to. There is nothing we can do in the meantime but wait and rest.”

I shook my head. “I can’t do that,”

I said, another tear spilling down my cheek. “I can’t just sit here. Can’t just sleep. Not when Maez is gone. I need to come up with a plan. I need a strategy. I need to come up with answers somehow—”

Navin’s lips dropped to my cheek in a soft kiss and skimmed up to my ear. “There are no answers in this wagon,”

he murmured. “We almost just died. Please,” he begged. “Let me hold you. Let me feel you. Let me make sure you will be all right. Let’s start with getting you out of these wet clothes.”

I let out a rough breath as his hands skimmed up my sides and found the hem of my shirt. He pulled it up over my head and dropped it to the floor. I met his eyes and his hands stilled for a second as I said, “I almost lost you today.”

“I thought I’d lost you, too,”

he said, tugging his shirt off from over his head. He pulled me back into him, both of us stripped bare from the waist up. The feeling of my skin against his made warmth spread up from my belly, stretching out across my limbs in pinpricks.

“I’m here,”

Navin whispered again. “We’re here. We survived.”

“We’re here,”

I said, stretching up on my tiptoes, relief flooding through me as my muscles finally relaxed. As my lips met his, I surrendered to this moment, to the comfort I knew only his body would bring me.

I needed him in so many ways in that moment. Needed his comfort, his reassurance, his warmth, his love; needed to feel like I wasn’t free-falling through the sky but firmly planted on solid ground.

As his warm hand splayed across the small of my back, he crushed me tighter into him. I let out a soft moan. His tongue licked into my mouth, caressing my own, luring me back to life, reeling me back into myself. My fingers trailed down his hot torso, landing on his belt buckle. He unbuttoned my wide-legged trousers without breaking our kiss. The fabric dropped to my feet, and I stepped out of it, kicking it aside. In my panic, I hadn’t bothered with undergarments and was now justly rewarded for it as his hands trailed up my backside and squeezed.

I finally worked his belt open and hooked my fingers in both his trousers and undershorts, yanking them down and freeing his erection. I stretched up to kiss him again, my skin burning at every point we touched. I backed him up until the backs of his legs hit the kitchen table behind him, and I leaned into him until he sat.

“We’re going to have to burn this table,”

he said with a laugh as I nipped at his bottom lip.

I shoved him back farther, his hands steadying me as I put one knee up on one side of him, climbing onto his lap. He gripped my ass tighter, holding me there poised above his hard cock.

“We survived,”

I whispered, holding his gaze as I stroked him from base to tip. His eyes guttered as I positioned him at my entrance, my mouth parting on a shaky breath as I began to lower myself onto him.

“We survived,”

he groaned, his hands tensing as I lowered farther until I was fully seated and every point of us joined.

I kissed him, reveling in the fullness, feeling for the first time since the battle anchored in a way that I so desperately needed. This was a promise only our bodies could make. We were here. Together. Tomorrow would bring with it a myriad of sorrows. I steeled my heart for all the pain I knew was to come, but there, with him, for one split second, everything felt safe and warm and right.