Page 43 of The Midnight Blizzard

“Prince Stephen told me I could attend. Ask him.”

“But he is not the one who assigns room and board. I am, and I say no. If the prince has given his permission for you to attend the ball this evening, you are welcome to attend, but until then, I must ask you to leave now or I shall have to call the guards.”

Half of me wanted to challenge him and wait for the guards to physically escort me out of the castle. I couldn’t believe that the royal family was so uncaring that they would throw me out. I cast an eye out at the swirling grey clouds. There was no way I could go out in that. Besides, my few belongings had been sent back to Frostwood Estate. I had no cloak, no furs, no wrap…nothing to keep me even remotely warm.

“Now, now, Octavius, don’t be so harsh.” The sycophantic voice of my stepmother set my blood to rising. My jaw locked so hard I was surprised my teeth didn’t grind into powder. Valencia came down the hall, with Vallia right behind her, wringing her hands and biting her lip. Valencia’s absurdly high heels clicked closer as she lowered her voice to a purr. “I’d be glad to have her come stay with us. She is family, after all. Besides, my girls need someone they trust to help them get ready while they finish preparing for the ball tonight. What do you say, Noelle? I’m happy to take you in. I’ve always been a charitable woman.”

“So kind,” one of the maids sighed.

This time, I was the one avoiding looking at Vallia, whose eyes begged me to accept her mother’s offer.

My vision turned red. I hated everything about Valencia, from the way she was able to manipulate people to her obsession with her looks. How dare she offer to reduce me to a handmaiden and act as though it was a saintly gift of benevolence? Leaning close to my stepmother, I snarled, “I’d rather freeze to death in a blizzard.”

Valencia’s face never changed, but gasps of shock came from Octavius and the maids. “How ungrateful,” I heard one of them whisper.

“Out, out, out!” Octavius barked, bustling along and shooing me down the corridor by flapping his hands. “Out this moment! I’ll be reporting this, you know! You aren’t allowed back inside the castle until the ball tonight! Out!”

I was beyond caring what they thought of me. I despised how Valencia was always able to get people to think she was some gracious lady when all the makeup and hair styling did was hide the hideous woman she was. If I had to be thrown out into the cold, at least I wouldn’t have to accept the false charity of the woman who’d deluded my father into believing she could ever be trusted.

Holding my head high, I turned on my heel and marched away. If Vallia was trying to be kind, she had failed. She was too afraid to stand up for herself and others; I couldn’t count on her being of any help to me. I vowed to never be like her—so frightened of confronting injustices that I stood by and apathetically allowed wrongs to be doled out. It was the same thing that happened to so many of the citizens who were happy to let mages be discriminated against as long as it didn’t affect them. But not me.

The short walk from the castle’s side courtyard to the dog barn was enough to make my teeth chatter and myentire body shiver from the cold. When I tried the handle of Jack’s room adjoining the barn, I found it locked fast. Icicles, he must have secured it when he left, assuming I had another place to stay.

Back to the barn I went, and I sat, fuming, in one of the stalls while Kodiak worked his nose between my side and arm, tongue lolling to the side. Cinder came and put her paws on my lap, soiling my already dirty dress even more.

“So much for being able to wear this to the ball,” I told them, watching as dirt continued to spread over the gown. Cinder let out a low howl and sniffed enthusiastically, tail wagging frantically as Kodiak lifted his head to lick my chin. Unable to stay angry while surrounded by such unconditional love, the corners of my mouth lifted, and I rubbed their ears.

Jack must have taken the rest of the team, for Kodiak and Cinder were the only dogs in the barn. It was unusually quiet without all the howls and barks, and as I stared at the ceiling, Kodiak and Cinder closed their eyes in contentment.

I couldn’t sleep. How could I, when I didn’t even know where I would be this time tomorrow? The uncertainty of my future gnawed at me, reminding me time and again of the reasons I resented my stepfamily. I couldn’t live at a school that was shut down, I’d been thrown out of the castle’s lodgings, and the estate I thought I would inherit had passed to someone else. There was no space in my head to worry about some silly ball. I was homeless in the middle of winter.

“—would be in here if I had to guess.” The sound of that wheezy, nasally voice set my teeth on edge as the doors to the barn opened. Instantly, Cinder and Kodiak awoke and barked at the newcomer.

The sound of guards clanking over made my heart lurch. Surely they wouldn’t throw me out into the snow.

“Aha.” Octavius’s rat-like face popped over the side of the stall. “I knew we’d find you here. Your stepmother was right.”

“Jack told me I could be here,” I told him, my jaw set and eyes narrowed.

“As I told you before, neither Jack nor Prince Stephen are in charge of room and board. I am, and I say you need to vacate the premises.”

“Have a heart,” one of the guards told him in a low voice. “It’s freezing out there and traveling on foot would be impossible. At least give her a coach.”

The other guard, a fatherly-looking man, nodded in agreement. “She doesn’t even have a cloak.”

Octavius wrinkled his nose so he looked like a mouse who’d just been offered moldy cheese. “Very well. I shall provide a coach to the village. Come along.”

I was left with no choice. “Come on, Kody,” I called, but Octavius held up his hand.

“The dog stays.”

“But he’s mine!”

“He looks exactly like several of the others.”

“Ask Jack! Jack can tell them apart.”

“And I shall ask Jack about it when he gets back, but he isn’t here right now. Until I’m certain that you aren’t stealing one of the royal advisor’s team dogs?—”

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