Page 56 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
She chuckled, her eyes zipping with emerald delight. “Maybe there’s hope for us yet,” she said, letting it linger like a suggestion between us.
“Maybe,” I taunted. “If you keep doing that to me, I think so.”
She propped up on her elbows, her hands encircling my waist. “Oh sweet, little Briar,” she crooned. “That is only the beginning.”
Then she rolled me and pinned me back down into the mattress.
Sadie
EACH DAY WE TRAVELED NORTHWARD, KEEPING TO THEcraggy shoreline and densely packed forests where no human trails existed for miles in any direction. It was slow-moving, often having to cut a path large enough for the wagon to travel through, but we needed to get as close to Highwick without detection as possible... which was particularly challenging when we had a giant red dragon in tow.
In the evenings, Haestas took to the sea to hunt upon Navin’s instructions, bringing back everything from squid to massive fish to whales. And when the dragon was feeling particularly benevolent, she would share her kills with us, taking the onus off me as the primary hunter of the group.
As we sat around the midday campfire, drying out our rain-sodden clothes, Navin sang a little tune to Haestas as she slept curled up in the clearing, tucking her snout under her leathery translucent wing. I wasn’t certain if dragons were nocturnal by nature or if Navin had made Haestas that way. It was much easier to travel covertly with a dragon who hunted at night. No more taking to the skies when the sun was high.
Svenja perched on the log beside me and Timon plopped down beside her. They each ate a bowl of steaming fish stew.
“Not long now,” Timon said through a mouthful of food. “We’ll be rolling up into Highwick in less than a week.”
“Do you think your Queen is ready?” Svenja’s eyes darted to mine and then back to her bowl.
I let out a long sigh. I was constantly being peppered with questions from the whispering wells. Calla and I would commune frequently through them. Whenever we stopped at a well, Navin would sing the magical songs, and we’d connect. But so far, Calla’s news had been incredibly bleak. The Ice Wolves were a third of their original size, recovering from a civil war that had shaken their pack. They were not the robust military we needed against the Silver Wolves. Even with our natural fighting instincts, the Silver Wolves had been trained since infancy in strategy and formations. We didn’t just hunt as a pack, we learned to destroy our enemies as pack, and in a battle of sheer numbers versus skill, skill would win, especially in the home territory of Highwick.
Pressure mounted every day. I knew Calla was counting on the Songkeepers and Haestas to be key players in this attack. My overly confident promises were beginning to feel like lies.
“I think Calla will do everything in their power to secure their throne and help the humans of Aotreas.”
“How diplomatic,” Svenja replied with a huff. “I don’t know why a Wolf queen cares at all whether the humans have a good life or not. No Wolf has cared about us before. Let alone to the extent of being willing to fight a superior foreign power just so humans had freedom.”
“No Wolf has ever been like Calla,” I said softly.
Svenja snorted. “I’ve heard that before.”
“No, you haven’t,” Navin cut in.
“The other packs need Nero neutralized just as much as the humans,” Asha added, her words confident even with her high squeaky voice.
“Aye. There’s more at stake,” Timon retorted. “Olmdere can’tjust shut its borders and watch the rest of Aotreas fall to Nero. Half of the kingdoms on the continent are in disarray while Nero sits pretty on his throne waiting for the world to crumble and seize the ruins. The Golden Court Queen must do something.”
I was about to open my mouth to reply theyweredoing something when a scream rang out through the forest. We were all instantly on our feet, Navin’s singing cut short. I turned in the direction of the scream and ran.
“Sadie!” Navin shouted after me, muttering a stream of curses, but I didn’t care—I kept running.
I narrowed my focus, scenting them in the air: humans. Not good. I prayed the cause of the scream was anything other than Nero’s Wolves.
It was only over the side of the next hill that I found them—a group of scraggly-looking humans. One had slipped into a ravine between the hills and was desperately clinging to the clumps of grass on the steep slope to keep them from falling in. I appeared through the trees on the other side of the ravine and judged the distance across—not too far.
The humans all looked at me in unison and froze. I didn’t know if they could tell just from the sight of me that I was a Wolf, but if I jumped across the ravine, they surely would.
Still, the slope was too steep for the humans to climb down and rescue the girl. I’d been trained my whole life to make quick decisions, that even the wrong one was better than stalling, and so I decided there was no other choice; I leapt. There was nothing but open air under me for a brief, gut-wrenching second and then I landed on the other side.
The humans gasped at the death-defying jump, but I was focused on reaching the girl before she lost her grip. I grabbed her by the back of her belt and hauled her up into the awaiting arms of an elderly woman. She scooped the girl up and held her tight to her chest, whispering soothing words of comfort.
The Songkeepers started appearing through the forest on the other side of the ravine, shouting at one another to go aroundand cross closer to the shore. I didn’t look back, though, not as I climbed up the rest of the way to flat ground and came face-to-face with a dozen sets of wary eyes.
I had a sudden terrible feeling like I might be shoved back into the chasm.
“Are you one of the Silent Blades?” an elderly man asked. He looked me up and down, his mouth set firmly as he pushed a child behind him.
