“You want to fly up to the nesting grounds,” he said, watching her face carefully.
He noticed the guilt in her expression. “It would be safer to let everyone rest down here while I speak with the dragons.”
“We,” Fox said.
“I won’t ask others to go with me. Chalia doesn’t know what to expect with our reception.”
“You’re not asking me. I’m telling you. I won’t let you go alone.”
“What are you whispering about?” Javi’s voice wasn’t loud, but the night was quiet and all eyes turned to them.
Fox saw the way Sofia blanched.
“I think a few of us should take Chalia up the mountain to meet the dragons,” Fox said.
Javi’s eyes narrowed. “Is this some scheme to run back to your friends?”
Fox rolled his eyes. “I ran off with Sofia and a dragon in front of another soldier. There’s no going back to them. But some of usaregoing to die if we do this for another week. The mountains will only get worse as we get higher.”
“You don’t make decisions here,” Micael said.
“But he does have a point,” Sofia said. “Chalia says the second pass is worse than this one, and I know I’m not the only one feeling the cold and exhaustion.”
“We can talk about this in the morning when I’ve had time to think,” Micael said.
He turned back to the fire, signaling an end to the conversation.
Sofia looked at Fox with a pained expression and he reached out, squeezing her knee. He hadn’t expected to earn their trust so easily. He’d done nothing to prove himself. His chest ached with the knowledge of just how alone he was.
That night, Sofia set her furs just a little closer to Fox’s, and when he rolled over in the middle of the night to wrap his body around hers, she didn’t pull away.
Fox wokein the dim dawn to a howl.
He was on his feet in an instant, his hand at his belt before his next breath. But he was weaponless, and his hands only found air.
“Here,” Sofia said, shoving a dagger into his hand before he couldopen his mouth. He looked around, his muscles tensed for action. The clearing was gray, barely illuminated with the coming dawn. The others moved around him, retrieving their weapons and standing at attention.
For a moment, they all stood frozen, their breathing the only sound in the clearing. The snap of a twig had everyone’s heads swiveling, and Fox saw a shadow darting somewhere between the trees—there and gone too quickly to truly register it.
A shuffling of footsteps to the left had Fox turning, and another shadow seemed to slip between the trees. It wasn’t human. It was the only thing he was sure of, and the realization sent ice down his spine.
A guttural snarl broke the silence, and Fox turned as a giant wolf leaped out from the bushes, directly at Clarita.
Sofia threw her dagger. It sank into the wolf’s side, but the blade did nothing but draw its attention. The wolf turned, readying to lunge at her as an arrow caught it in the neck. Javi had another arrow pulled a second later, bow taut and ready to fire.
Chalia roared from the shadows, and all eyes turned as she came bursting through the trees, jaws snapping at another wolf as it scrambled away. With a sickening squelch she sank her teeth into it and wrenched it side to side until the wolf went limp. She looked almost gleeful at the sudden attack.
A dozen more wolves ran into their clearing, one with blue eyes fastened on Fox. It vaulted toward him. The small dagger in his hand felt useless against the giant creature, but he lashed out at the last moment, twisting his body away from the claws as he did so. The blade sank into the flesh of the wolf’s side and hot blood sprayed. Before he could celebrate, the creature had turned back on him, jaws wide and teeth gleaming with saliva.
Fox retreated, tripping over the furs from Sofia’s bed and going down hard on his back even as the creature lunged. He pushed the dagger up and forward into the wolf’s chest, kicking its body away with all his strength. The wolf went limp and fell. The dagger slipped from his hand. He laid on the ground for only a moment, his back aching, the blood on his hands turning cold.
He pushed himself up despite the pain. Just a few yardsfrom him, a wolf paced in front of Micael as the man swung his sword in sweeping arcs, keeping it at bay. A small group of resistance members huddled behind him. Javi’s mother held a dagger, but Fox could tell from the way her hand shook that she barely knew how to use it. Micael was the only thing standing between them and the wolf’s jaws.
Fox studied the way he wielded his blade, fast and sure, and he realized he’d underestimated the man. He may have moved as if everything hurt him, but when he needed to fight, he was a man decades his junior, clearly trained from an early age. In fact, from the looks of it, he could very well have been trained by the king’s men.
He didn’t think Micael would appreciate him asking about that history, however.
A snarl to the left caught Fox’s attention, and he saw a third wolf coming up behind Micael. Fox jumped forward without thinking, pushing the man to the side, just as the wolf lunged. They went stumbling, and the wolves clashed together. But their confusion only lasted a second as both wolves turned on them. Micael’s hand trembled as he reached out, trying to grab the sword that had fallen a few feet away, but Fox knew he wouldn’t be fast enough. This close to the man, he could see the pain pinching his face. He didn’t turn into a different man. He simply fought because he needed to.
