9

3

T

he next morning, I climbed into the carriage feeling shockingly well-rested. Elias had been right about the run—I’d slept like the dead on the slightly too soft mattress. I slept even better with the heat of Elias’ body next to mine. He’d been perfectly respectful all night too, keeping his distance from me. If I’d woken up first with my nose pressed to his nape, well, he didn’t need to know that.

The mischievous glimmer in his dark eyes, however, suggested he might. “That run seemed to serve you well,” he said as he set our rucksacks inside the carriage. “Should make for a more pleasant ride today. Are you sore at all?”

“No, should I be?” I asked, rubbing my neck.

“Not particularly,” he said. “Just from the roughhousing last night. You were quite spry for someone who rarely shifts.” He set his hand at my neck where I was rubbing it and pressed his thumb into the muscle. It was slightly sore—that was why the contact sent delicious warmth spiraling through me.

I swallowed and stepped out of his reach and into the carriage. “Just because I don’t shift constantly doesn’t mean I’m a weak wolf,” I said.

“I never said that.”

I bit my tongue before I started another fight. Why was it so much harder to communicate with him as a human than as a wolf? I took my seat in the carriage and pulled out my novel.

“Good morning, Your Highnesses,” Kodan said cheerfully as she strode up to our carriage. She carried a wax-wrapped package in one hand and a large flask in her other. “Some snacks for our journey today. And coffee.” She handed them to me, and I took them gratefully. “Innkeeper said the augur indicated some bad-looking clouds in the distance. We should do our best to outrun them.”

“Is that a metaphor?” Elias asked.

“No, she meant the actual weather,” Kodan said. “So we’ll be moving at a slightly brisker pace if the horses can take it.”

Elias nodded. “Then let’s get moving.”

“Pray the gods give us speed,” Kodan said, and threw up a sloppy salute.

As it turned out, the augur was right. We had passed six hours of the journey through the balds when the sky darkened with dense clouds overhead. The mountain pass separating Frasia from Shianga loomed in the distance, as the closer we got, the rockier things became, and the horses slowed their pace over the rough, hilly terrain.

Elias cursed under his breath as he peered out the small window of the carriage. Fat flakes of snow began to fall—just a few carried by the howling wind rattling the coach. And then more flakes. Then ice. Then the wind began to slam into us hard enough to rock the wagon on its wheels. I gasped and braced my arms against the sides, wrapping myself tight in my cloak as the blizzard worsened.

“I had expected a storm,” Elias growled, “but not anything like this.”

The carriage ground to a halt, trapped in the middle of the balds by the howling wind. I couldn’t see anything outside of the small window, just a flurry of white.

There was a brisk knock at the door. Elias slid it open and cold wind raced into the carriage like it had been waiting to come inside. I grimaced and pulled the cloak even tighter around my body.

“The horses are blinded, Your Highness,” Kodan shouted over the wailing tempest. Her red hair and black cloak whipped wildly around her, though she seemed indifferent to the cold. “We can’t progress further.”

“We can’t stay here, either,” Elias said. “Only the gods know when the storm will break. We need a camp.”

“I thought the same. Shall I scout for a nearby site?”

“I’ll come with you,” Elias said. “Reyna, wait with the other ladies in Kodan’s carriage, please.”

I nodded. Typically, I didn’t like being bossed around, but being squished between Fina and Adora for warmth sounded like exactly the right place to be.

The king wrapped his arm tightly around my shoulder, using his bulk and the cloak to shield me from the worst of the blizzard as he guided me toward the other coach.

“Be safe out there,” I said.

He grinned. The cold didn’t seem to trouble him, either, even as the wind caught his dark hair and sent it whipping around his face. “I’ll find us a nice place to stay,” he promised. “Nicer even than the Bloody Nightingale.”

“Bar’s low, then,” Kodan said. She closed the door with a wink.

I leaned close to the window. Elias and Kodan both shifted, and through the blizzard I could barely make out their immense shapes. Kodan was nearly as big as Elias was, but leaner, and her pelt was dark brown, but shot through with the same shade of red as her hair. The two wolves lowered their heads and loped off into the blizzard, quickly swallowed by the storm.

“Sit,” Fina said after a moment, gesturing to the space between herself and Adora. They were seated on the same bench, both curled up in big Starcrest cloaks against the cold.

Adora smiled and brandished a fine silver flask. Her cheeks were ruddy from the cold. “I have a little brandy, too.”

“It’s barely mid-afternoon!” I said with a laugh. I sat between them and curled my feet up under my body, immediately grateful for the warmth. I leaned back against the seat with a sigh.

“And we might be here a while,” Fina said. She took the flask from Adora’s hand and took a swig.

“I don’t know what they think they’ll find,” Adora said. “It’d do better just to let the snow build up around the carriage. Let it act as insulation.”

“Even a blizzard this strong wouldn’t be enough to cover the carriage,” Fina said. “Those poor horses.”

“The staff’s already got blankets on them,” Adora said. “They’ll be just fine.”

“You Starcrest wolves are so tough,” Fina said. Then she passed me the flask. “How are things in the private royal carriage? I heard some howls last night—did you go for a run?”