“I saved room for you and Fox,” he said.
She gave a relieved huff, throwing down her furs and collapsing onto the bed. “You wanted to keep an eye on us.”
“Gods, no,” he said, lying down next to her on his own furs. “I already told Jacinta I’d run over to her cave if I needed to give you two privacy.”
Sofia stared up at the ceiling, feeling the exhaustion of the past two days sinking into her bones. Her entire body was melting into the floor, leaden.
“I don’t know why I want him,” she said after some time. Javi had always been good at that, sitting quietly and simply waiting for someone to open up and give in. She waved knives to get people to talk. He sat in silence.
“I don’t think that’s something I can answer for you. But I’ve seen the way he looks at you and the way you look at him.”
“He’s a fucking king’s man.”
Javi laughed and shook his head. “He’s not. Not anymore. I’m pretty sure that man would kill the chief commander for you if he thought youwanted that. He’d tear through the army to get to you. That’s not a king’s man.”
“He joined the army to avenge his brother.”
“His brother was killed in an attack?” Javi guessed.
“Yes, but—” she rolled over, facing him directly. “He was part of the resistance. He got caught in one of the bombs he helped set, and Fox didn’t even know.”
“Shit,” Javi said. “No wonder the man’s a mess.”
“We’re in the middle of a war,” she said. “I shouldn’t be thinking of him. I shouldn’t be worried about this.”
“Sof,” he said, reaching out to place a hand over hers. “I don’t think you get a choice in that. You’ve spent your life fighting. You’ve spent sun cycles putting everything aside for the resistance. And you’ve lost so much in the process. Isn’t it time you found something? It’s not about the right or wrong time. You deserve this.”
Sofia grasped his hand, squeezing it. Guilt churned in her stomach. She knew if she admitted the truth—that she didn’t see a future for herself after this war—that Javi would give her an entire speech about it. He’d hate her for even thinking such a thing. He’d tell her thatof courseshe’d make it out alive.
“I love you, you know,” she said instead.
“Obviously.”
She smiled, allowing her eyes to close at last. She fell asleep with Javi’s hand still in hers, and she could almost pretend they were back at the base with Flor behind her and nothing changed. But just as she drifted away, she realized she was glad some things had changed.
Perhaps she couldn’t keep Fox forever. Perhaps they didn’t have a future. But maybe she still deserved the moments they had left.
After she woke up,she met the others and started to plan. They’d lost another shapeshifter. Kento had indeed run out to tell Clarita and the others what they’d learned of Harlow’s so-called treaty and what hewas offering the wolfshifters. Sofia watched the jaguar dart over the slope, and she sent a prayer after him that he’d be safe.
It left them with fewer than a dozen ready to help, but they weren’t fighting a battle. They were planning a heist. And all of them had experience with spying and infiltrating places they didn’t belong. Sofia could only hope it would be enough.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
FOX
Chalia had sent Jobin to Fox as she promised, and the small white dragon swept down from the sky right after sunset on the first day. Fox had spent his hours alone trying to sleep and devoting too much energy to thinking about Sofia—hoping she was safe. It was a stupid thought. He was the one a mile from the Dereyan army, but he hated not knowing where she was. At the very least, Jobin showing up was confirmation that she’d made it back to the nesting grounds.
The dragon also assured him that Aurelia had agreed to the plan with only a few complaints. When Fox had pointed out Aurelia always had complaints, Jobin gave a warble he took as a laugh. At least the dragon appreciated his humor.
He only had a brief time to speak with Jobin and catch up on what the dragon knew before he had to leave to go back to the army’s camp. The plan was to spend the night in the tree that Sofia had shown him, keeping an eye out for Ian’s signal and gathering any other information he could from watching the soldiers.
Jobin didn’t stay at their camp, traveling just far enough into the forest that they could stay in contact while Fox was at the army camp. Even after he left Jobin tucked between the ferns and roots, the dragoncontinued to chat away, giving Fox very little room to respond. He told Fox about the time he’d killed a wolfshifter on his own, and no one had believed him because the body had fallen into a crevice afterward. And the time he’d convinced his father to let him fly out to the ocean when he was only fifty—which apparently wasn’t something the flock usually allowed until they were at least two hundred.
“Have you seen the ocean?”Jobin asked, but didn’t wait for Fox to answer.“It’s so enormous—endless. And it shines under the sun, just like snow. My father told me that there are lands on the other side, and we used to be able to fly all the way there. Our ancestors lived in the ocean and on the other side, too. The world just keeps going! Someday I’m going to make it to the other side of the ocean.”
Fox was glad for the distraction. Ian had fulfilled his promise—there were no scouts directly around the tree once he found it. Sofia’s scrap of fabric was tattered and nearly brown, but he found it eventually. He had to ask Jobin to stop talking long enough to approach and climb the tree, too afraid to do it distracted, even if there were no scouts around.
He spent that first night straining in the dark to get a glimpse of his mother. Harlow’s tent sat in the middle of the camp, not too far from the prison tent and what he assumed was Ian’s tent. But its opening was facing away from where he sat vigilant, and Fox didn’t see anyone enter or exit the entire night.