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They were gone. My family was gone. My kingdom was in ruin. Our people, like Navin, suffered at the hands of a sorceress. And here I was singing a merry tune about a love story whose true ending was one of death and grief. If my mother’s soul had a song, it wouldn’t be this one.

A knot formed in my throat and I wasn’t sure if I would make it to the end. My body felt impossibly light. This wasn’t just a story to me anymore, but I couldn’t let this Wolf pack know it. Why would a human cry over the sad fate of the Gold Wolves?

My voice began to rasp, but with the crowd now diverted back to the dancing and the instruments nearly drowning me out, it didn’t matter so much. I wondered if the troupe did it on purpose, or if they were simply lost in the song, but I was grateful.

Each wooden note felt harder than the last. I didn’t know if I could do it, if I could reach the last line and sing about my parents’ “happy” ending. How could I form those words? Sweat broke out along my brow, my stomach dropping as I realized I might reveal my secret right then and there in front of hundreds of Wolves.

Keep going, I prayed, but the words were sandpaper against my windpipe. It all came crashing down on me in this one sweet song. Fear gripped me—the lights blinding, the final words choking in my throat and, in my panic, my eyes found Grae.

As if hearing my plea, he pushed off from the marble column and strode toward me. As the last notes died on my lips, he grabbed me and kissed me.

The crowd laughed and cheered, delighted by the seemingly playful act of a partygoer interrupting the song. The kiss pushed all other thoughts to the recesses of my mind, and I finally found my breath again. Grae’s lips lingered, his wide body shielding mine from onlookers. For that one brief moment, it was as if the rest of the room disappeared and only he and I existed.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, his warm breath making my lips tingle.

As the applause died down, I was reminded of the audience and took another steadying breath. Grae threaded his fingers through mine and led me back into the corridor. Galen den’ Mora had already moved on to a new jaunty tune.

Thirty

The empty hallways echoed with the sound of my ragged breath.

“Where are we going?” I whispered as Grae shouldered open a little door to a courtyard. The sound of strings echoed up the tall stone walls. Golden light filtered from a high-arched window, a sliver of chandelier peeking through the glass. We were so close to the ballroom and yet we felt a world away.

I lifted my train with my free hand and stepped into the dusting of snow. Crates and buckets lined the far wall, probably from the overflowing kitchens. We hadn’t seen much of the castle on our ride through the back entrance, just the tips of the white needle-like spires above a towering white wall of snow. I was certain the front entrance would be grand, but humans didn’t enter that way.

The far door had the symbol of a Wolf and the Taigosi wordsDa Lothien Ostrosko.It roughly meant “hospitality closet,” where Wolves could find clothing if they traveled to the palace on all four paws. How well the Wolves treated their own kind... how poorly they treated everyone else.

“Thank you,” I said to Grae, releasing his hand and leaning against the cold white stone. The coolness soothed the torrent of emotion swirling inside me.

Grae cupped my cheek. “You were wonderful, little fox.”

“I don’t know what overcame me,” I breathed. “I’ve heard that song a million times before—heard it just recently, in fact—but something about actually singing my parents’ love song in front of an entire pack of Ice Wolves...”

“Your parents’ story had only ever been that—a story. But the closer we creep to Olmdere, the more real it becomes.”

“From the moment Sawyn cursed Briar, it became real.” I wiped my clammy hand across the back of my neck. “Remembering her on that stone tomb only reminds me that their story didn’t end like that song, no happily ever afters for them.”

“They had many years of happiness together, though,” Grae said. “Some would trade a lifetime for those years they spent together. Their lives were more than just their endings.”

I found Grae’s eyes in the shadows of his mask and I knew he was thinking of his mother, too. “Yes.”

Grae’s eyes smoldered as he wrapped his hand around my waist and gathered me to him. “You can’t come to a ball and not have a dance with me.” He looked at the snow-covered broom leaning against the wall. “Though this isn’t quite what I had imagined.”

“Me either.” I let out a soft laugh, looking up into his beaming eyes shadowed by his fiendish mask. “Though I think this might be more appropriate for our first dance.”

“You belong in the center of every room, Calla,” Grae murmured, eyes dropping to my lips. “But yes, selfishly, I like having you all to myself right now.”

He began moving me in a simple box step, gliding me around the tight space. So often I had to practice being the lead dance partner with Briar. It felt good to be guided around the floor for once. The beautiful melody filled me as Grae twirled us around.

He sighed. “I’ll never forget that moment, the sound of your voice, the way you looked.”

“You have a beautiful voice, little songbird.” We both joltedapart at the sound of the smooth, warm tone. “It reminds me of someone I knew long ago.”

We stared through the open doorway as Queen Ingrid sauntered toward us. Her hoop skirts squeezed through the archway as she waved her feathered fan along her décolletage.

“Hello, Graemon,” she said with a quirk of her lips. She lifted her chin in Wolf greeting and tapped her fan closed against her lace-covered hands. “Not a very convincing disguise, I must say.”

I straightened, wishing I had more than just my knife in my boot. Grae took a step closer to me as he bowed, and I did the same.