“Did you ever think we’d end up here?” I whispered.
“In a wagon filled with human musicians?”
I nudged him with my elbow and he looked at me again. “All the adventures you used to tell me . . . now we’re living one.”
“I hope to have many more adventures with you.” He swept his hand up my arm, his fingers idly tracing my neck and lips. “All those years apart broke me, little fox.”
“I wish I could’ve been there for you.” I looked up into his sorrowful eyes. “I’m here now.”
“I still can’t believe it sometimes,” he murmured. “You’re here. You’re safe from him.”
I ached at those words. After knowing what happened to his mother, I no longer wondered why he was willing to go along with any of his father’s requests. I wrapped my hand around his waist and tucked my head into his shoulder. The warmth of his body tugged me toward sleep, the lull I’d struggled to find alone so easy to find wrapped in his arms.
Grae kissed the top of my head, his voice cracking as his arms tightened around me. “I was so afraid of loving you.”
I lifted my head, my mouth finding his in a soft, sleepy kiss. “You don’t have to be afraid anymore.” I knew they were the words he so desperately needed to hear, and I meant them with every ounce of my being. My lips skimmed his stubbled cheek. “I’ve never felt stronger.”
I rested my head back on Grae’s shoulder as I thought about the conversation Ora and I had that day—of who I’d unearthed.
Merem. One little word had made everything open up—a calm, steady assurance washing over me. Every choice that had wavered suddenly felt clear. I didn’t need to lessen myself any longer. I wouldn’t make myself smaller in order to fit into the Wolf world. It was such a brand-new thought, and yet ancient, inevitable, my brain racing toward this change and slowly easing into it all at once.
I glanced up to find Grae’s eyes closed, his breathing slow and steady. He shifted me closer in his sleep, his smoky forest scent enveloping me. Another quiet moment would come, I promised myself, and when it did he would hear me and understand. I closed my eyes, forcing away the swirling nerves. For now, we both needed to rest with our mate by our sides.
Twenty-Nine
“I can barely see in this thing. What if we’re attacked?” Hector snapped, adjusting his mask for the hundredth time.
“No one will recognize us.” Sadie kicked her brother in the shin. She wore a matching simple silver mask, studded with pearlescent beads.
Ora had procured the masks for us from one of their costume boxes. There seemed to be a treasure trove of ensembles for every possible occasion. We wore the masks in the sleigh as we rode to the palace on the off chance anyone was around who would recognize Grae. The rest of Galen den’ Mora split up into two more sleighs to fit their instruments, and the Wolves followed in our own sleigh.
I glanced at Grae to find him already looking back at me. He wore a black mask with twisting midnight horns that made his cheekbones and jawline seem even sharper.
“Why would the Silver Wolves be at an Ice Wolf masquerade?” Sadie tipped her head to Grae. “We have a tentative relationship with them at the best of times.”
“She’s right,” Grae said. “I doubt my father garnered an invitation, and sending his scouts would be most unwelcome. Queen Ingrid already hates my father.”
“Why?” I asked, wiping my sleeve on the fogged glass and peering out onto the pristine streets of the Wolf quarter. “I mean, not that I blame her.”
Grae pointed out the window at three black-cloaked figures marching down the street. Rooks. I watched them patrol down the perfectly shoveled paths and past the glittering white buildings carved in the phases of the moon. Whereas the human quarter was filled with color, the Wolf quarter was nothing but black, gray, and white. It was tasteful and cold, no sign of personality to denote which Wolf family lived in which home.
“Ingrid let Sawyn’s Rooks into Taigos pretty quickly after her razing of Olmdere,” Grae said. “She didn’t even try to push back, maybe out of fear of the sorceress, I don’t know. The Rooks occasionally bleed over the border into Damrienn, causing trouble, but my father pushes them back into Taigos.”
“I’m sure your father had something to say about her breaking off her engagement to Luo, too,” Hector said.
My eyes darted to Hector. “Luo?”
“She was betrothed to the King of Valta for a time,” Hector replied. “The second princess to shirk him.”