“I’ll go,” I mutter, glancing away.
“Excellent! That sounds fun.” Aurelia beams, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. “I’ll come too.”
“No,” I growl.
She slants her eyes toward me. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she says sweetly. “I didn’t mean that to come off as a question. I wasn’t asking you.”
Kai’s face splits into a wide grin, and any awkwardness is immediately forgotten as he switches to speaking mind-to-mind.“She’s a spitfire.”
I turn my narrowed gaze on him instead, another growl bubbling up in my chest. “Tell her she can’t go.”
He raises an eyebrow at me.“I don’t know if I want to get between you and your?—”
“Tell her she can’t go!”I command, practically shouting in my head.
“Fuck, fine.”He flinches, then turns back to Aurelia.“Sorry, we can’t allow any outsiders to join in on our patrols.”
Her face falls, and I immediately feel guilty, both for disappointing Aurelia and for overpowering Kai. I don’t feel nearly guilty enough to back down, but still.
“How fast can you be ready?” Kai asks me. “The rest of the party is already waiting.”
I glance sideways at Aurelia. “Five minutes.”
“Good. Meet you down there.”
It takes more than five minutes to put my armor on, and longer until I’m convinced that Aurelia won’t go exploring alone while I’m gone. I’m actually glad that she might be bored all day, maybe she’ll decide that she wants to go home.
When I finally arrive at the center of camp, there are six other wolves there, all wearing armor and with swords strapped to their backs. One is Kai, one is a kid who looks no older than fourteen, three I don’t recognize, and one is?—
“I can’t believe you’re alive!”a round-faced blonde man shouts, jumping out of the group and bounding toward me.“Fuck, brother, that’s incredible. Has anyone ever escaped Dyaspora before? No, right? Fucking brilliant.”
I clap Luka on the back in greeting when he reaches me.“I would have bet money you were dead too,”I say by way of greeting.
He grins.“Never.”
Kai and Luka were among my few close friends growing up. Luka reminds me a lot of Jett—or rather, Jett reminded me of Luka when I first met him in prison. That was the initial reason we became friends. Jett has a dark side to him, though, which Luka doesn’t have. He’s more like a dog than a wolf.
“Alright!”Kai barks, getting everyone’s attention.“Everyone listen, because I don’t want to say this twice.”
Luka’s spine straightens instantly, his body responding to the command before his mind can process it. I notice the difference immediately—where once I would have felt that same pull, that same instinctive need to obey, now there’s nothing. I turn toward Kai anyway, partly because I still feel bad for forcing him to submit. I think I just wanted to know if I could, but now that I’m sure, I don’t know what to do with that information.
“There are three wyverns nesting up on the eastern ridge. A full-grown male and two adolescents, which makes me think that the female that you killed the other day—”Kai nods to me“—was likely part of the same nest.”
A few of the soldiers glance at me curiously, but Kai doesn’t wait for them to ask questions.“This is Fox,”he explains.“He’s going to take Brenna’s place. Fox, this is Dagfinn, Ilona, and Mynthe.”He points out the unfamiliar man and two women.“Mynthe is the scout.”
I nod at them in disinterested greeting.“Who’s the range?”
“Me.”The kid who looks to be about fourteen holds up a crossbow to show me.“I’m Gunnar.”
I glance at the bow, then at the kid. He’s short, only an inch or two taller than the women, and skinny, his armor hanging loose at the joints. That might be alright for a range fighter, but his eyes are wide and earnest, like he’s just happy to be included. I meet Kai’s eyes over the other’s heads and silent understanding passes between us. The kid isn’t cut out for this. We’ll do our best to keep him alive, but there’s only so much we can do to prolong the inevitable.
“Right,”Kai barks,“I don’t want this to take more than a day, I’m planning to be back in time for dinner. Understood?”
There’s a general murmur of agreement, and we set off, retracing the same path Viktor led Aurelia and I along to get here. When we reach the field where I killed the last wyvern, Kai veers left into the woods. Despite myself, my lips turn upward as we walk. I’m actually looking forward to a real fight.
Luka speeds up to walk next to me. He’s grinning and swinging his ax back and forth with each step.“Bet you’ve missed this,”he says, as if he’d read my mind.
I shrug.“I don’t miss the fucking snow all year long.”
