Galeia’s forehead crinkles at me from where she sits in the middle of her cage. One foreclaw has speared through the arm of a straw doll, pinning it to the floor.
She doesn’t budge, but that’s okay. I have a plan.
Very carefully, I open the lid to my toolbox and make a show of peering inside it. She won’t be able to see its contents from where she’s sitting.
As I hoped she would, she cranes forward, trying to see what I see.
I have to be careful not to touch any of the dark metal inside the box, but I reach into it as if I will pull something out.
She darts forward, pressing her face to the bars, inhaling deeply again.
Her green eyes are suddenly even brighter than before.
She makes an urgent growling sound in the back of her throat, and I do my best to interpret it.
I tip the box toward her so she can see into it. “Something you want?”
She moves much faster than I was expecting. So fast, I nearly drop the box in shock.
With astounding speed, she shreds the bars in front of her, her black claws slicing through them as if they were nothing but air before she leaps at the box.
I’ve barely caught my breath before her little hand darts into it and then retracts again. She’s now crouched right in front of me, her fist closed around whatever she took. She presses it to her heart, making another growling sound that begins with force but ends plaintively.
The corners of her mouth are turned down, and she looks up at me with that same forlorn expression she gave me when she pressed her cheek to the bars earlier today.
I don’t dare make any sudden movements.
She’s out of the cage, which is what I wanted, but my task only gets more dangerous from here.
A piece of metal that was still clinging to the bars behind her falls to the ground with aclang, but I don’t react.
I swivel my eyes to the box, taking a quick look at its contents. The device that was in Erik’s heart is the only thing missing.
She holds it up to her nose, inhaling deeply, and I make out the wolfish faces in its design.
“I can take you to him,” I murmur, keeping my voice low and very slowly gesturing to her closed fist before pointing to myself. “You can come with me.”
She leans toward me, inhaling deeply, dragging in my scent before her focus falls on my hammer. She crouches lower to sniff that, too, but she looks puzzled, tilting her head at me.
I can’t for the life of me figure out what she wants, but I take a risk, carefully brushing my fingertips against the hammer’s handle.
Light glows around my weapon, and I’m aware of the way my skin and hair and body light up with it.
Galeia’s eyes widen. She takes a quick breath, another deep inhale, blinking rapidly before she looks at me again.
She sneezes. Her little nose wrinkles. Then she edges toward me, and I stay very still as she climbs onto my lap.
My heart beats hard, not only because of the danger she poses to me, but also because she’s holding the dark device near me—a device made out of metal that Graviter Rex warned me never to touch again.
But she keeps it pressed against her chest, her fist closed around it.
I’m certain this is the best I’m going to get.
Very slowly and carefully, I lift my hammer and slide it into the scabbard at my back.
I’m concerned that once my light is gone, Galeia will move away from me, but she snuggles more closely.
My arms close around her before I very carefully reposition her on my hip.
