He looked out over the burned valley. “I’ve secured passage for all of them. Food and temporary shelter until they can rebuild on our land—and of course protection.”
I didn’t speak for a long moment, swallowing down the sob that kept trying to creep up my throat. The wind caught the hem of my cloak, carrying with it the smell of soot and something new.Hope?
“There’s war going on in Fenmyr?” I asked quietly.
Kaelric nodded. “Yes. But your people will be protected as if they were my own.”
I didn’t know much about wolfkin war, and he didn’t offer any more explanation. But… possible war was better than what my people had now, which was nothing.
The Dregs had always been a place no one else wanted to look at. Now Kaelric, the traitor wolf, was offering my people a way out. A place to rebuild. Food and protection.
“Is there enough? For everyone?” I asked.
He nodded. “Hildreth has the richest soil in the realm, with a year-round growing climate. Sugar snap peas, pumpkins, and berries grow wild on the roads. We have acres and acres of open flat land for building, and thousands of trees. Each family would have to build their own home, but the tools, the supplies, and help would all be given to them.”
This time, the sob did escape me, and I spun around so that he wouldn’t see it. I remembered his words then, right before he’d kissed me, when he’d said he had wanted to grow wings and fly me away so I would never cry again.
I heard him step closer and felt his warmth at my back, not touching me but close enough that I felt his heat. “I’m sorry you had to just see your childhoodhome burn down. If I could take this pain from you, I would.”
He thought I was crying because I missed my home. No. I was crying because he was doing more for my people than Aerlyn ever would.
“What about jobs? How will they earn a living?” I asked, my back still to him.
“Every citizen of Fenmyr is assigned a community job at age seventeen. We don’t use coin. You work in your assigned job, and everything in the community is shared with each other. If you don’t like your job, you can apply for a change every year. There are no taxes. As the alpha, I make sure everyone is provided for.”
I swallowed hard, having to fight down another sob. No taxes, no coin, guaranteed jobs. Only having to work at age seventeen instead of twelve. Everything shared. It sounded like a dream.
“Tell them,” he said. “Let me know their decision. The train leaves in an hour. They can keep the supplies either way.”
My heart was overwhelmed with gratitude, and I nodded, wiping at my eyes.
Over the next hour, Kaelric’s men handed out supplies. Each family got a large canvas tent, blankets, building tools, food, and water. After that, my mother and I split up and went around telling them about Hildreth. We told them about Kaelric’s promise thatthey could live in Fenmyr until we figured out something long-term. Or maybe that was the long-term. I wasn’t sure how we could ever come back from this without Aerlyn’s help and the Elites that ran it. We told our people there was a war going on there, but that Hildreth was far removed from it. We told them it had plenty of food and trees for wood, and we could build homes there. Real homes. One by one, they murmured to each other, and when the answers rolled in, they saidyes. Desperation didn’t leave room for doubt. For most of them, it wasn’t just a better option; it was the only one.
After hugging my family tightly, I said goodbye to them as they got onto the train headed for a part of Fenmyr I had never been to or heard of.
I stood on the cracked stone platform, arms wrapped tight around my middle as my people, my family, boarded the train bound for Hildreth. They moved in quiet lines, clutching bundles of salvaged belongings and supplies the wolfkin had handed out just moments ago.
The children were the only ones not quiet. They ran in tired circles, giggling despite the smoke, despite the unknown. I watched my little brother, Finn, hoist his stick into the air, waving it at me through the train’s glass window.
Tyrus was the last to board. After hugging me, hemet my eyes and nodded, like we understood each other now in a way we hadn’t before. As the next eldest, it was on him to make sure our mother and siblings settled into this new life.
Because I might not be alive this time tomorrow.
Kaelric stood near the engine car, arms folded, speaking quietly with the male wolfkin who seemed in charge. He’d done what I never could. He saved them, all of them. It caused my puppy love for him to grow into something deeper. Something that scared me. I needed Kaelric Morvain like I needed air.
The whistle shrieked, and Kaelric stepped back.
The train lurched forward, and I stood there as everything I’d ever known vanished into the smoke.
I turned from the soot-stained platform and came face to face with the alpha wolfkin. We were alone, just us, the smoke and the open fields and the weariness of a night not slept.
“Why?” I asked him.
He swallowed hard, meeting my gaze and holding it. “We have to go, Brynn. The train for the Steel Mountains will be leaving Aerlyn soon.” He moved to step away, but I stepped right in front of him and blocked his path.
“Why?” I pressed, harder this time, angry.
“Why what?” His voice held a tenderness that thawed my irritation.
