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“You think Nero is working with Luo?” she asked, her voice growing more serious.

“I think if a war is coming, the Silver Wolves will look to their Onyx Wolf friends for support, yes,” Briar said sympathetically. “And now that Nero is doubling down on Wolf law, it might not be long before Luo tries again to stake claim to your kingdom.”

“I will not allow it!” Ingrid shouted, her fists pounding the table and making the cutlery clang together. The sudden outburst was at such stark contrast to her usual calm. Finally, we saw a flash of fear in her otherwise cool countenance.

Briar, to her credit, moved slowly and softly as if calming a skittish animal as she placed her hand over Ingrid’s. “Olmdere won’t allow it, either. But with Silver Wolves attacking one border and Onyx Wolves at the other, you’re going to need a friend who supports your claim.”

“Have the monthly carts of food and goods to help your kingdom not been enough to win that friendship?” Ingrid asked.

“You have been most generous,” Briar said, skirting around answering. “And we will continue to support you as the true Queen of Taigos with all of our gold and natural resources,” she vowed. “But now more than ever, we need each other.”

Ingrid’s hands shook as she pulled them from Briar’s. She took a steeling breath and the tremors were gone. The thought of being sold off like a prized horse to Luo truly had her spooked.

“Agreed,” she said. “I still haven’t made up this mind about a rescue mission, though.” She eyed me. “Sending Ice Wolves into Nero’s kingdom could mean the start of a war, one neither of us is prepared to win yet.”

“You don’t have to decide right now,” Briar said, and Isqueezed her leg roughly under the table which she pointedly ignored.

“I’ll think about it.” Ingrid stared at the table, seemingly noting the movement. “I’ll have a decision for you by the end of the week.”

“The end—”

“That’s all we ask,” Briar said, bowing her head. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Ingrid inclined her head in return, rising to stand. “Come. Let me give you a tour of the gardens.”

She and Briar took the lead. My hands still balled into fists at my side as I stood. We couldn’t just frolic around the ice palace pretending a storm wasn’t brewing over both our kingdoms... but if playing royals was the way to win over Ingrid then it was our only choice.

Sadie

I awoke in the sand... naked.

The dune above me was so tall that it cast a shadow over me. Without that shadow, I’d probably have been cooked alive. I wiped the sand from my eyes and spit onto the ground. The saliva immediately vanished, sucked into the arid ground. I dusted my skin off and searched for my clothes, but I couldn’t find a single shred.

It hit me all at once: the sandstorm.

We’d fallen. I craned my neck up. Beyond the sand dune was a peak of Sankai-ed, the road directly above me caked in a thick layer of sand still. I swore the dune had grown up to meet the road, burying half of it in the ground during the storm.

I stood, brushing off my bare legs and searching for any signs of life. Galen den’ Mora was nowhere to be seen, nor were Maez and Navin. I prayed they both somehow made it through the storm. Maez was hopefully safe within the wagon... but the way Navin and I flew off, free-falling...

How did I survive? My Wolf form must have taken over to protect me. My clothes torn away in the storm. I didn’t have a scratch on me, my skin unblemished, my body healed of any fall apart from the stinging of my eyes, which still had bits of grit in them.

I stood and trudged downhill, my bare feet sinking deep into the hot sand. I cared not one whit that I was naked, not when no one was around for miles, not when the shock of the fall still coursed through me. Still, I longed for my knives. More, I longed for water as my body drained of all its moisture, so quickly zapped when I stepped beyond the shadow of the dune.

“Fuck,” I snarled and backpedaled into the shade again. “I guess I’ll be walking that bridge into the sky butt naked... and at night.”

I plonked back down into the shade. I’d have to wait until sunset if I didn’t want to die in this heat. I lay back down, suddenly deliriously exhausted. Staring up at the now-blue sky, my vision twisted and blurred as fissures of heat rose up around me.

Somewhere in the endless desert, Navin would be buried under a mountain of sand. An Olmderian man with a Valtan complexion. A musician. A secret keeper. Someone who had struggled and lost and found a way to carry on despite the harsh twists life kept throwing at him. This. This shouldn’t be the way his life ended. He would probably be strumming his lute in some tavern right now were it not for me. Somewhere deep down I knew I’d be the death of him. I couldn’t help but feel I brought this fate to him.

I shouldn’t care. He shouldn’t mean anything to me at all. We never truly had anything, just a handful of “maybes” and “one days” that we both knew would never come to pass. Still, as I lay in that baking sand, all I could think of was the way those bronze eyes seemed to always see straight through my every defense, the feel of his hand in mine, the taste of his lips...

My nose tingled and I sniffed as my eyes welled. A traitorous tear trailed down my cheek and I wiped it away. I should be preserving the water left in me. There’s only so much that shifting could heal, and if I didn’t get water in the next day, I’d probably die. But I was trapped here in this pool of shadow and so I conserved my energy as best I could.

Another puffy white cloud blew past, and I tried to think ofany way that Navin could’ve survived. Maybe the wind whisked him around and back into Galen den’ Mora? Maybe his body got snagged in the netting on either side of the bridge? Maybe he found something to hang on to? Maybe the Gods could spare him somehow?

I sniffed. I had let his hand go. At some point we got torn apart, but I should’ve hung on, should’ve been stronger. Even when I lost consciousness, I should’ve done more. I ached. The weight of loss pressing me down like a two-ton boulder. Thinking of the complicated man, of the secrets he kept, of the ways he protected me, cared for me,cherished meat one point even... he’d been sweet and beautiful and surprisingly cunning when he wanted to be. If only we’d had a little more time.

I grieved him in my mind, remembering every detail as my eyelids grew heavy. My mind twisted and warped, blurring the lines into lucid dreaming as the heat consumed me.