Page 43 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
She nodded. “It’s called a samsavat. Rasil is its master.”
“I can’t believe Navin was married to someone so cruel,” I said, shuddering.
“He wasn’t always as he is now,” Mina signed. “Not that he was ever particularly likable. He believes it is our sect’s cause to defeat the Wolves and return the land to one ruled by humans. But there are many of us who believe our calling is to return to a place of harmony between humans and Wolves.”
“Like Ora?”
“Like Ora.” She nodded. “But now that Rasil knows the eternal songs... he could create an army of monsters and sorcerers. Maez’s powers could be the least of our problems. Each day I wake wondering if he finally decided to do it.”
My shoulders drooped at the thought. It felt like our battles were innumerable; perhaps Nero was the least of my future problems as Queen. “I don’t want to kill humans.”
“Let us handle them,” Mina signed. “The Songkeepers should deal with our own.”
“And how do you do that?”
“We need to lure them all to one place—Highwick.”
My eyes flared. “The Silver Wolf capital?”
“We can’t afford to split our resources fighting Nero in Damrienn and Rasil in Valta. We need to get Rasil to come to Damrienn. We need to have our force from the north and Navin’s from the south close them in. Both targets in one place. We won’t beat Nero or Rasil without all of our manpower.”
I arched a brow at her. “You’ve turned into quite the military strategist.” She grinned at me. “So how do you propose we get Rasil to Highwick?”
“I may know just the person to lure him out. An old friend. Leave it with me,” she signed, then patted me on the leg and stood. “I have a plan.”
Briar
I SAT ON THE LEDGE OF THE THIRD-FLOOR WINDOW, MY FEETdangling in the open air. I didn’t even flinch when Maez appeared beside me. She wore a black cotton undershirt and her normal black leather trousers. Stripped of most of her weaponry, this was probably the most dressed down she would be.
“You’re not jumping now, are you?”
I let out a half laugh. “No.” My bare feet swung out over the open air, feeling light and tingling as I stared down at the massive drop. “And I know you would catch me.”
I felt Maez’s eyes on me, the weight of them skittering across my skin. “Always.”
“What does it feel like,” I asked, “flying through the air like you do?”
“I can show you,” she offered. I pursed my lips, not sure if I would find that exhilarating or terrifying. When it came to Maez it was usually both. “Already bored in this little place?”
I chuckled. “I wouldn’t exactly call this place little.” I looked up at the several stories towering above me and the two more below. “I don’t think I’ve explored even half of it yet. But...”
“But?”
I finally looked at her. Those dark pools of obsidian stared back, unblinking. “What are we doing here, Maez?” I asked,shaking my head. “Why have we buried our heads in the sand... or up in the clouds, as it were? Sweet Moon, do I wish that nothing existed outside these castle walls, but they do. We can’t pretend otherwise.”
Her eyes dropped to my lips for a split second and then back out to the floating islands far in the distance and the sea of desert sand below, staring so far as if she could almost see Damrienn.
“When I heard that Nero had taken you...” Her voice drifted off as her expression grew more severe. Most would only see the anger there, but I saw the fear beneath the surface, too. “I think sometimes you forget that I had a life before we met,” she said. I swallowed the lump in my throat. That wasn’t what I had expected her to say. “I knew Evres as a pup. I knew what a bastard he was, his penchant for violence, his lust for control... but he is nothing,nothingcompared to Nero.” She let out a long breath as if it pained her to release it. “I had so many reasons why I grabbed that power from the air, grabbed that dark magic with two hands and didn’t let go. And I would make that same choice a million times over to make sure all of the fears I had for you never came to fruition. I would damn my very soul to keep you from being hurt by him the way I have been.”
My heart plummeted. “What?” I practically choked on my words. “What did he do?”
Fear coursed through me like white-hot lightning. Why had she never told me this story before? Why was it only in this darkness and with this power that she finally felt she could speak these truths aloud to me? I was her mate. But I knew the answer: some things are too terrifying to even admit to yourself. Maybe only now she could.
Maez took another steeling breath. “Being the niece of a king is a precarious position,” she said. “I think you know the roles we are given as highborn Wolf women better than anyone, the sacrifices we are forced to make.”
I was practically shaking, quivering with fear. I didn’t dare speak.
“Nero had plans for me,” she said, and bile rose up my throat. “The greatest benefit I could give him was for me to be sold to another. He had plans for all of us since the moments we were born. He used you to get Olmdere, Calla to get Valta, and me to get Taigos.”
