Sadie

I listened to Navin hum tune after tune as we rolled through the Sevelde Forest. Holding his hand was like holding a flame to candle wax: I wanted it to burn me, but it only made me melt more into his side. I couldn’t deny the comfort of his warm grip on my own. Just a physical comfort, I assured myself as I wrapped another layer of thorns around my heart. It didn’t matter how my body responded so long as it helped me uncover his secrets.

If Navin was aware of the ebb and flow of my incongruous thoughts, he didn’t show it. Even at rest when he wasn’t performing, he couldn’t seem to stop himself from carrying a tune. It was only when the golden trees were far behind us that Navin finally fell silent.

When we rolled into the sleepy border town of Durid, we only had to pay one crover for the border tithe. It was strange not having Sawyn’s Rooks posted every few stretches along the trail. They had bullied us out of quite a lot of money on the ride to Olmdere before Sawyn’s demise. I wondered for not the first time what would come of the former Rooks like Navin’s brother.

When Calla was saved by their dying wish, I saw the way the light patched them back together, as if an entire sun was consumed into them, their scars like rivers of gold across their body. The Rooks’ swords clattered to the ground instantly at the sight, knowing that even the Gods themselves wanted Calla to protect Olmdere.

There was not a whisper of dissent, not a single murmur of uprising amongst the remaining Rooks. It was strange . . . and wholly unsatisfying. Humans who one second I’d been driving my blade into were all at once cowering on their knees, begging our forgiveness. It would’ve felt better for some of them to rebel, some of them to rise up, to fight. At least then I’d know they had a backbone. But no, the Rooks all sided with Sawyn out of fear. I thought it would’ve been easier slicing my knife across a few more throats, making some examples with public hangings . . . which is why I was a soldier and not a ruler. Still, I liked the way people avoided me in the streets, worried that I’d take my vengeance out on them for their traitorous past.

That past seemed too close to me now as we rolled through the outstretches of Durid and parked the wagon a short walk from the town proper. This was the location . . . the one only so many weeks ago Navin had taken me by the hand and dragged me through the muddy streets to find a quiet place for the two of us—the one and only time he’d ever even kissed me. Sweet Moon, this wasn’t me at all to think such things.

I wasn’t a shining moonbeam. I was a thundercloud.

I sounded like such a puppy, reliving a kiss . . . But that kiss was brutally interrupted by King Nero’s inner circle of Silver Wolves. I’d watched as they nearly beat the life out of Navin. The fear still gripped me even now.

Humans were so fragile—too delicate and breakable to withstand Wolf brutality. I had shifted, and my wounds had healed while I watched Navin take weeks and weeks to recover. He’d take weeks and weeks from the injuries he sustained now, too.

Hector had been right. Ugh. I hated thinking about my older brother being right about anything, but it was true. I should’ve stayed away from Navin those many moons ago.

Wolves and humans couldn’t be together . . . not that I wanted to be with Navin anymore, with all his secrets and lies, anyway.

When we parked, Navin squeezed my hand and finally released my grip. I’d forgotten we were still holding hands long past the Sevelde Forest. It’d felt so natural to be hand in hand with him, and yet nothing was natural about it at all.

“Thank you,”

he murmured to me before hopping down from the seat with practiced ease.

He unhitched the oxen from the wagon and took them off to a distant pasture to graze. I sat on the driver’s bench, my legs numb and tingling as I watched the back of his head fade into the distance. He moved so confidently around these parts, clearly having traveled through Durid several times before. I wondered if Galen den’ Mora played in this little town even before Sawyn opened the borders. It seemed the eccentric wagon traveled to every corner of Aotreas.

“So?”

Maez’s voice made me jolt. I hadn’t noticed she’d pulled apart the velvet curtain and was peeking up at me through the window. “What did you learn?”

Oh, right. Espionage. I let out a long sigh, finding my knives again. I was pretending to care about someone I actually once did care about and might still care about—a little—but shouldn’t care about at all . . . Great. Nothing confusing about that.

“He said his brother had secrets and that he couldn’t let him die without knowing if he’d shared them.”

“Damn,”

Maez said, watching as Navin’s figure dipped over the distant hill. “So if you killed his brother now, he wouldn’t mind?”

I cut Maez a look. “I still think he’d mind if I killed his brother.”

I flicked my blade back and forth. “But perhaps not as much as he would’ve before he knew his brother didn’t spill these mysterious secrets.”

“Secrets he wanted him to take to the grave. Wow,”

Maez said. “I’m actually impressed the sweet, lanky musician could be so cold.”

I clenched my jaw, wishing I had something to stab. “There’s more.”

“More than the suspicious, secret-keeping brother. Intriguing.”

She grabbed my elbow and tugged on it. “You climb in. There’s no way I’m fitting through that window without looking like a drunken mountain goat.”

“A very cool, tough drunken mountain goat,”

I said, and she rolled her eyes, half dragging me back into the warmth of the wagon.

It was only once I felt the fire she’d lit that I realized how cold it had become outside. Despite it being the tail end of summertime, we’d climbed high enough into the mountains that the air was brisk. Another few days of nearly vertical ride and treacherous paths and we’d be in the snowy landscapes of the Ice Wolf kingdom.

I rubbed my hands together as I wandered to the sunken seating area and dropped into one of the patchwork couches.

“It’s Ora,” I said.

Maez sidled over, flopped onto the couch across from me, and kicked her feet up on the low table between us. Her boots sat along the grating at the back door, and she wore only her woolen socks, making the way she anxiously shook her foot even more noticeable. “What about Ora?”

“Apparently they have a secret that could destroy the world,”

I said mildly.

“Fuck.”

Maez scrubbed a hand down her face. “Of course they do.”

“What could Ora possibly know that’s so catastrophic?”

Maez’s foot shook faster as she folded her arms across her chest. “If Ora has been taken by the Silver Wolves, I’d bet a thousand gritas that those bastards have already tortured every secret out of them.”

I shook my head. “Navin said Ora has a way of keeping their mind protected.”

“Mind magic, you think? What kind of human possesses such power?”

Maez shuddered. “That’s so creepy.”

“We speak into each other’s Wolf minds through magic,”

I reminded her, but she ignored me.

“So the Silver Wolves are hacking poor Ora up for answers to some secret that Navin won’t tell you . . .”

She stared up at the ceiling. “What could it be?”

“I’m still unsure the Silver Wolves even know Ora possesses such secrets.”

I shrugged. “It’s just as likely Nero did it to piss off Calla.”

“I wouldn’t put it past him,”

Maez muttered. “But we still need to know exactly how serious this threat is.”

“Ora has traveled all around the continent; I imagine they’ve acquired all sorts of secrets during their travels,”

I said. “They can be in a roomful of Wolves and be unseen, just a performer, just window dressing. They probably hear all sorts of drunken whispers at parties and events.”

“But one so important?”

Maez pulled her feet off the table and rested her elbows on her knees, jiggling one leg up and down. “One the Silver Wolves would take Ora to get? Or at least one that Navin fears they’d stumble upon?” She let out a frustrated sigh. “And Navin won’t tell you what it is?”

“No.”

“Then you need to get closer to him,”

she said. “I know you don’t want to—”

“It’s fine,”

I muttered. “You should keep searching this place. Maybe there’re secrets hiding within the nooks and crannies of the wagon. I’ll deal with Navin.”

She was right. He was already opening up to me more than he seemed like he wanted to, which meant he would be willing to divulge more the closer I got to him. And any guilt I might feel for that was mitigated by the fact that I absolutely didn’t care for him in any way whatsoever.

“We need to know what we’re walking into,”

Maez said. “If he was willing to tell you this much . . . why couldn’t he tell you what this secret was?”

“I don’t know.”

I held Maez’s dark gaze. “But whatever this world-changing secret is, he must know it, too. And his brother.”

“I need to shift soon. I’ll update Briar on what little we know so far.”

She tipped her chin toward me. “You need to get these answers out of him.”

My hand slid to my belt of knives. “Oh, I intend to.”

Maez clicked her tongue. “Not that way.”

“You mean you think I should seduce the answers out of him,”

I grumbled.

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“If you have to. Definitely that over the knives.”

“But I know how to use knives. I have no idea how to do . . . that,”

I groaned. “I am not the fluttering eyelashes kind of Wolf. I’m the tear out your throat with my teeth kind of Wolf. If you wanted someone for seduction, you should’ve picked better.”

“There was a time, not that long ago, when it seemed like you both mutually wanted to get in each other’s pants,”

Maez goaded. “I know things have soured between you two, but some of that attraction must still be there.”

“Nope.”

“So that’s why you held his hand for hours?”

I glared at her. “You were spying on us?”

“The hand-holding worked,”

she said with a mischievous smile. “Now if you’d only Wolf up and start holding some other parts, maybe we’d get some answers out of him.”

“You are seriously foul.”

“And you are seriously naive.”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you want to know what he’s hiding from us?”

“Yes,”

I gritted out.

“Then find a way to get him to willingly let down his defenses,”

she said. “If he can guard his mind like Ora can, then there will be no prying answers out of him with the tip of your blade. The tip of your tongue, on the other hand . . .”

I scowled at her, knowing that she was right. I had a new court to protect, a new family that could be hurt by Navin’s secrets . . . I’d put my pride aside and get closer to the human. Whatever this secret was, I needed to know it, too.

Maez stood and turned an ear toward the sky. “He’s coming back.”

I nodded and we switched into a conversation about the proper way to cook gloftas as Navin climbed the wagon steps. Whatever I had thought this diplomatic mission to be was slowly unraveling before my eyes.

We rode through the night before finally stopping at dawn in a little snowy town just outside the capital of Taigoska. We wouldn’t be traveling to the capital this visit—too much attention, too much danger. Navin had spent most of the trip in the driver’s seat despite the oxen being able to guide themselves, with us two Wolves staying out of sight. Maez and I took turns sleeping in the narrow bunks scattered throughout the upper shelves of Galen den’ Mora. There was no reason to sleep in shifts, but our soldierly instincts got the better of us. Still, I had one of the best sleeps I’d had in months.

By the time I woke up, we’d passed the spires of the Ice Wolf castle and turned toward the Firestorm Peaks that bordered Valta. I’d never ridden that way, never been to the kingdom of Valta even. Everything in me told me we should be heading west toward Damrienn, not east toward Valta. It hit me anew that I may never see the pine forests of my homeland again.

We stopped in a little human town that popped up in the middle of the frozen tundra. After Navin found a stable for the oxen—which technically they didn’t need being magical oxen—he announced a little too cavalierly that he was venturing into town to buy some supplies.

Maez and I exchanged glances.

“Might want to bring back some food,”

Maez called from where she stirred a pot of blackened goo.

I grimaced at the bubbling pot. I nearly chipped my tooth on her attempt at baking the night before. There was no apparent reason why Maez had decided to take up the culinary arts on this trip, but I suspected it was her way of missing Briar. Her mate—and kitchen goddess—was sorely missed by me as well. I could certainly go for some of Briar’s beef stew right now.

Navin gave a salute. “I think that’s for the best.”

He waved us a hearty farewell, which was normal for his overly friendly disposition, but still ever so slightly exaggerated.

Maez chucked the pot into the metal basin with a scowl, waiting a beat to make sure Navin was well and truly gone, before turning to me and asking, “We’re following him, aren’t we?”

I grabbed my cloak from the back of the kitchen chair. “Yep.”

“Good,”

she said, throwing her tea towel on the bench. “I think this place is going to stink of burnt sallaneva for a while.”

“Will you please find a less disgusting way to miss your mate,”

I said with a mock gag.

She threw her apron on the bench, too, the sight of her comical, standing there caked in flour and armed to the teeth in her battle leathers. “Maybe knitting?”

I rolled my eyes and snatched my fur hat. Maez bundled up beside me.

“Be quick,” I said.

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “He won’t have gotten far on those human legs,”

she said with a chuckle.

“His human legs are very long.”

“And”—she looked at me pointedly—“there is a thick layer of snow on the ground that will make it incredibly easy to follow his footsteps.”

I reached for my knife belt in annoyance, needing something to do with my hands. “Okay, okay,” she said, walking to the grating at the back of the wagon and yanking on her snow boots. “No need to get the blades out. Jumping juvlecks, this human has your fur all ruffled, huh?”

I debated for a split second about socking her in the jaw, but then thought better of it. She’d have to shift to hide the inevitable welt and then that would create more questions. No, I’d save the maiming for another time.

It didn’t dawn on me that hitting my friend was the wrong thing to do, period.

I hastily tied my laces and stomped out into the snow, walking the easy-to-follow trail of Navin’s large boot prints. My gait was wobbly at first, already so used to the rocking motion of Galen den’ Mora that it felt strange to be back on solid ground. The air was so cold that steaming whorls of breath clouded around our faces as we walked. At least the biting gales had died down and now there was only a gentle dusting of snow falling from the skies. I pulled the cloak tighter around me, wishing I was wearing my fur instead of a coat. My skin was so unprotected and delicate, the cold easily seeping into my bones as we trudged through the snow.

How did humans do it?

We slowed our pace as we wandered into the little village. Pulling our hoods up, we linked arms, looking for all intents and purposes like a couple out for a midmorning stroll about town. We zigzagged down two more streets before we turned another corner and I halted abruptly, yanking Maez back. We’d caught up to Navin. He wandered down the silent street, humming to himself all the while.

“What is he doing at this end of town?”

Maez asked, nodding to the streets in the opposite direction. “All the taverns and markets smell like they’re that way.”

I bobbed my chin in agreement, unlinking our arms. “This part of town seems dead.”

“Perhaps he deals in some nefarious trades on the side,”

Maez whispered. “Maybe that’s his secret. A person constantly traveling from one kingdom to the next would be the perfect smuggler.”

I considered it for a second before shaking my head. “That can’t be it,”

I said. “Smuggling goods isn’t enough to set the whole world on fire as he put it.”

Maez shrugged. I peeked around the corner again as Navin turned down an alleyway up ahead. As soon as he disappeared, we followed, tailing him to the next corner. When we reached the alley and peeked down, Navin’s humming abruptly halted.

“Shit,”

I whispered, yanking my head back.

My heart pounded in my ears, waiting, waiting. But then Navin’s humming resumed and he carried on. We continued our pursuit. At the other end of the alley was an old town square. A bell tolled and the square erupted into applause and laughter as a wedding party poured out of the human love temple. As the crowd entered the square, Navin strolled casually into the throng.

“Great,”

Maez muttered as we tried to keep our eyes on him in the crowd.

We shoved through the merry well-wishers, finding the road diverted into two around the temple. Navin was nowhere to be seen, nor any footprints in the snow down either path.

I glanced at Maez. “Split up?”

She nodded. “Meet you back at the wagon in one hour.”

I darted down the left-hand side, moving quickly through the lingering crowd and back into the quiet of the side street. The human temple was a long rectangular building constructed of sandstone and ice. I hugged close to the wall. It ran all the way down toward a giant snowbank, a dead end to the right. If Navin had come down this way, he must’ve gone left. I tiptoed up to the corner, my hands twitching for my knives. I peeked around and saw nothing but a wall of icicles hanging from the building’s roof.

I was distracted, assessing the wall for holes, the snow dampening my senses, when a hand reached out and grabbed me by the back of my cloak.

As I was yanked backward, I snagged a thick icicle in my grip, spinning my attacker by the arm and slamming them into the temple wall. I had the distinct impression the towering figure was letting me maneuver them backward, not even putting up a fight, but moving just as I willed them to. Bodies weren’t that compliant; even those without fighting skill instinctively should’ve resisted. I held the tip of the icicle to the cloaked figure’s throat with one hand, releasing my grip on them with the other to yank back their hood.

A pair of bronze eyes stared back at me, drained of their normal mirth for a flash before that crooked smile returned.

“I would think you followed me out of concern for my safety,”

Navin said with a grin, “if you weren’t two seconds from impaling me with an ice dagger.”

“What the . . . ?”

I looked to my left and right, then up to the roof, which was also covered in a deep layer of snow, no footprints to be found. How the fuck did he get behind me? More, how did he sneak up on me, a Wolf?

I cleared my throat. “What are you doing out here?”

He kept his head flattened to the wall, only moving his widening eyes to the icicle in my grip. I scowled and threw it into the snow. The bloody thing was burning my hand anyway. Navin pointedly rubbed his throat with his pointer finger before reaching into the inner pockets of his cloak.

He produced a bundle of fabric and unwrapped it. The smell of freshly baked meat pies wafted out. “I made a detour from my shopping to get these,”

he said. “Saba makes the best pies in town.” He cocked his head, his eyes warm and eager. “Were you looking for me? Did you want to come with me to the markets?”

How? How! How did he have time to go buy these pies—we were right behind him this whole time. What sort of magic did he possess to whip these hot pies out of thin air? I tried not to scan around the space. Was there some secret shop below the love temple? Was there a stand in the square that we completely missed?

A more ominous thought unspooled from my mind: maybe this secret wasn’t about someone, something else, maybe it was about him. His friendliness now seemed tinted with malice, my skepticism sharply cresting within me. That flicker behind his mask, that look in his eyes, what lurked beneath? I’d sniff him out, dig up what I couldn’t yet see.

“Oh, um,”

I said, trying to appear flustered and not look like I was solving this mystery. “Yes. I need some . . . rope.”

He arched his brow. “Rope?”

“Yes,”

I hedged. Why the fuck had I picked rope? “It’s a common item to carry in our packs in case of emergencies.” I tried to hide my cringe of embarrassment. I sounded like a complete fool.

Maez rounded the corner, skidding to a stop when she saw Navin and the meat pies he proffered out. She turned her stumble into a swagger. “Navin!”

she called in a jolly tone. “Oh, good, we found you. We thought we might accompany you to the markets. I’m in need of some . . .” She glanced at me and I grimaced at her. “Salve,” she said with a confident nod, trying to sell the lie. “This thin Taigosi air is making my lips chapped.”

Fuck that was good. My lips were kind of chapped from the cold air. Why didn’t I think of that instead of rope?

“Excellent.”

Navin smiled at her and then at me. “Shall we eat and walk?” He offered each of us a pie, acting ever the host and not the least like the stealthy liar I was beginning to suspect him of being. “These will be your new favorites.”

We each took a pie as we strolled out of the dead-end road. Our boots crunched through the snow, the fresh powder whining as it compressed beneath our soles. Wisps of chimney smoke rose up toward the overcast sky, and the smell of mulled wine and roast meat cut through the crisp air.

When I took a bite of the flaking buttery pastry, I moaned. Maez echoed my noise with her own.

“Sweet Moon,”

she crooned. “If I didn’t already have a mate, I would swear myself to these pies.”

I snorted, bits of pastry flying out of my pressed lips.

“I told you,”

Navin said to me as he nudged Maez with his elbow.

We strolled side by side, making appreciative grunts and hums as we devoured our pies. Navin started humming a merry tune to himself again, and I couldn’t help for a moment but feel like we were just three friends wandering the streets of the little town. Then I remembered the speed with which Navin grabbed me, the way he let me overpower him, the stealth with which he snuck up on me, and the skill with which he covered for it.

Everything I thought I knew about the man was crumbling to ash between my fingertips. What more was he hiding? What more could he do? And would he use these secret skills against me and Maez? I’d foolishly once thought he was a gentle soul . . .

Now I was beginning to wonder if we were even safe with him.

All the ease of the moment drained away. I knew then for certain that there was more to Navin than just the traveling musician I’d met moons ago, and my hackles rose as I readied for whatever I was about to discover.