Calla
I SWORE I SAW HER FOLLOW US, A FLASH OF RED HAIR ON THE periphery. She was right there. She was with us. She . . .
My arms flew out as I tried to move through the tight cram of bodies. “Briar?”
“We have to go back for her.” I pushed back toward the hallway as panic flared within me.
“Didn’t you see her follow us? She was behind me, wasn’t she?
She . . .” A panicked warble caught in my throat.
“She was right there and then . . .” I combed back through the frantic memory of the explosion and our run.
Had my mind played tricks on me? Was she separated from the group somehow? Had someone taken her?
I cursed my hopeful mind, my panic conjuring the image of her running alongside us only to be woefully mistaken.
“We have to go get her!” I battled his grip and Sadie joined in holding me back.
“We will,” she whispered. “But if she’s hidden and safe, then let’s first deal with the problem below our feet.”
“Let me go!” My voice cracked even as my limbs resigned themselves not to battle further. “I can go after her alone.”
“No,” Grae and Sadie replied in hushed unison.
“Calla.” Grae forced calm into his voice. “If she is barricaded in the servant’s passage, she is safe. Let her remain hidden until the castle is secure. Pulling her from the hall now will just bring her back into danger.”
I didn’t know if his logic was sound. What if she was trapped under the rubble?
What if Nero saw her retreat and went after her?
Every part of me wished to rush back to her.
But running back through the halls filled with Silver Wolves and a sorcerer king would do her no good, either.
The only thing keeping me from bolting was the resolute look in her eyes when she’d returned to us.
She’d always been strong in spirit, but she was hardened now, too, more resolute.
She is tough. She will survive this.
We continued through the portrait on the far side and crammed into the balcony. Sitting, we hugged our knees to our chests to hide from the glimpses of light from the boardroom below.
Thank the Gods they were all humans down there. At least they couldn’t hear our panting breaths and rapid heartbeats.
Grae sat to one side of me, Sadie to the other. As my panic finally ebbed to a solemn determination, I tilted my head, looking at Sadie for a split second before she and I both wrapped each other up in a fierce hug. Relief coursed off us. For a second I thought I might never see her again.
But that relief was short-lived. Now we had a sorcerer behind us and powerful magicians below. Even with an army circling the castle, the odds seemed to slip from our favor.
“Sweet Moon, am I glad to see you,” I signed to her.
“I wish under better circumstances,” Sadie signed back.
I grabbed her hand and elbowed Grae as we both stared down at the silver ring on her finger. “Did you get engaged?”
“Now is seriously not the time, Calla,” she mouthed, shaking her head even though her lips curled up. Navin leaned forward to look down the line at us, a proud expression on his face. Even under attack from a sorcerer, he looked like it was the best day of his life, so foolishly in love.
“If we survive this, I want all the details,” I whispered.
“That’s a big ‘if.’ ”
A chorus of laughter circled up from below us and we all stilled to listen to the conversation.
“I knew you hadn’t forsaken the cause, Kian,” Rasil said. I leaned forward to see him clapping the man on the back.
“Who is that?” I whispered to Sadie.
She leaned in until her lips were an inch from my ear. “Navin’s traitor brother, Kian.”
“That’s Kian?” I balked. “He betrayed you again?”
Sadie let out a little growl beside me.
“I will always remain loyal to our brethren,” Kian said, his arrogant voice easily echoing up to the balcony.
“I’ll hold his arm while you stab him,” I whispered to Sadie.
Mina waved to me from the corner, catching my eyes as she signed, “Wait for it.”
My brows creased as I looked from her back to the people gathered below. Then my mouth fell open in silent shock. Was this what she had meant when she’d signed, “Leave it with me”? Her plan to get the Songkeepers to Highwick? The old friend she needed to speak to was Kian?
Blasts of power echoed from the distant reaches of the castle.
I feared it was Nero tearing into everyone who hadn’t fled.
How many more were still trapped? I wondered if Verena and her pack had made it out.
Were the rest of our armies now dead in the castle?
Had some managed to run? We had made a dozen different plans, but none of them involved Nero becoming a sorcerer. It was every Wolf for themself now.
We wouldn’t have long until Nero picked us all off.
He was like a cat playing with its prey.
I wondered if he did it on purpose—felling us one at a time so that he could enjoy each of his kills.
Maez’s tactics in the snow in Taigos had been to cut down her enemies in a single strike.
But Nero seemed to delight too much in the killing to make it so quick.
We needed to get him into a more strategic position, one in which we could circle him from all sides, draw him out. Even then, it would probably be a death sentence, but with the element of surprise, maybe we could get close enough to ram him through with a sword. Or . . .
I shook Sadie’s arm. “Where’s the dragon?”
Her mouth tightened, the muscle in her jaw popping out at she shook her head. “A new monster was created—that’s how Nero took that dark magic,” she whispered. “The beast that was conjured from it chased our dragon into the night. I don’t know where she is.”
Her words flooded me with ice. No dragon. We were well and truly fucked.
“Quickly, brother,” Rasil said, cutting my attention back to the room below. “Teach us the song. How can we control these Wolves?”
“You mean besides with a juicy rabbit?” The group chuckled and waited as Kian leaned back in his chair, taking his time.
My heart thundered, thinking back to Briar. I wondered if I could just turn and bolt the way we came, but Grae held me tight, knowing my intentions.
“With haste, Kian,” Rasil growled and the rest of the Songkeepers hiding on the balcony stifled laughs.
“Perhaps I had underestimated him after all,” Sadie whispered to Navin.
“Maybe he needed us to sell the lie,” Navin replied.
“Well, it certainly worked,” Sadie muttered. “I almost killed him.”
When Kian finally began to sing, it wasn’t at all what I had expected . . . No, as I strained my ears to listen, the bodies around me started shaking with laughter.
I’d heard this song in the boisterous taverns of Allesdale. It was a lewd sea shanty. One that had even me blushing.
Kian’s song was cut off abruptly as Rasil’s fist collided with his face. Kian spat blood to the side, painting the wall scarlet.
“Was that not it?” he asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Maybe it was the one about the fairy and the giant?”
Rasil punched him again, whipping his head to the side like a limp doll. “Traitor.”
“If you’re trying to insult me, try another word. That only affects me when people I care about use it.” He paused to spit more blood onto the table. “People like Mina. She told me to contact you, that you’d be foolish and arrogant enough to take the bait—”
His words were cut off by another brutal slap.
Rasil lifted his fist for a third punch when Navin leapt up and vaulted over the balcony railing, landing squarely on the boardroom table. Unsheathing his knife, he pointed it straight to Rasil. “No one is allowed to punch my little brother but me.”
“Finally.” Sadie was on her feet in an instant. “Time to stab some people,” she said, looking at us with a wink. “Good luck,” she added as she launched over the railing to join her fiancé.
Another sharp crack of magic echoed from behind us, and I grabbed Grae and pulled him back the way we came. “Let’s go,” I said as more Songkeepers vaulted over the railing and into the melee below. “We’ve got to draw Nero out and away from Briar.”
Grae unsheathed his weapon and nodded. “Agreed.” He looked at me and raised his eyebrows.
“Ready?” I asked.
He shot forward, pulling me into a burning kiss, one that would have to say everything. Leaving me momentarily reeling and breathless.
“Ready,” he said, his smile a source of light and warmth on this too-dark night, and he swung open the portrait.