Page 32 of A Bride for the Winter King
Poppy muffles a high-pitched squeal with her hand. “Aster’s right. There’s someone out there.” She motions us forward.
Blood whooshes at my temples as I wrap a sheet around me and walk to the window. The storm allows for an intermittent and incomplete look at the entrance of the maze. The dark shapes of the cedar hedges blur in the distance, and my heart gives a big thud. The maze… I shake my head to erase the aftertaste of my vision and avert my gaze.
Daisy rolls her eyes. “There’s nothing to see.”
“I saw her, I swear. A woman.” Aster runs to the door and wrenches it open. She tightens the duvet around her frame and walks outside to peer over the parapet. “I think she needs help.”
A burst of wind swirls inside the room, and the two other girls stir in their beds. “What’s going on?”
“Can someone shut the door, please?”
Daisy dashes to the open door and curls a hand around the frame. “Aster? Come back inside and close the damn door.”
“She’s right there!” Aster shouts over the wind.
Daisy steps out in the snow. “Aster, stop fucking around and come back. You’re in your pajamas, for Eros’ sake.”
Poppy draws a sharp intake of breath and backs away from the windows. “Guys… Aster is going into the maze.”
Without giving myself the time to think about it, I lace up my winter boots and throw my cloak on.
Ice and snow scatter in Daisy’s wake as she bolts back inside, her feet and fingers red from the cold. “What’s gotten into her? Seth will know what to do—” She pauses as I walk past her. “Where are you going?”
“Get Seth. I’m chasing after Aster.” I pull my hood over my head and slip outside, sealing the door behind me. Aster is a privileged and pampered mortal. She won’t survive alone in this storm.
Huge chunks of snow hit my face, coming from all directions at once. They frost over my eyelashes and sting my cheeks as I draw in a deep, soothing breath. I don’t have much experience with Fae winter storms, but I know the night like the back of my hand.
Spiders see perfectly well in the dark.
I slide down the stairs, the boots supple and comfortable, and vanish into the shadows. Even if Poppy and Daisy are watching the entrance of the maze, they won’t see me now. The woman Aster caught a glimpse of was probably harnessing a fewshadows herself, which means it might be the woman I came here to find.
This morning, when we walked through the labyrinth, I couldn’t tell left from right, but I know this maze, now. I’d never stepped foot in this forsaken garden before today and yet I could map it out by heart.
A powerful magic is at work here. Whatever forces sent the vision also rewrote parts of my brain, and I shake all over as I follow a fresh trail of footsteps in the snow. The King’s private gardens quickly come into view, the Hawthorn’s dark shape visible in the distance.
A woman stands right below it, and I pick up the pace. “Aster?”
But the silhouette in the distance isn’t Aster. Long black waves peek from under the woman’s hooded navy-blue cloak, and my heart slips past my feet.Morrigan.
Shadows creep along the hills of fresh snow, and I fashion them into a shield, slowly walking toward my mark to take a closer look and confirm her identity. I can’t quite see her face, but the height and build is right.
At the bottom of the three towers, a hidden door opens to the Winter King himself. I stop abruptly, and a heap of snow gives under my feet, sucking me in. The thickness of the mound prevents me from moving without giving away my position.
The hooded woman leans into Elio and hooks her elbow around his offered arm. He steps aside in invitation, and the woman slips past him, disappearing inside the castle.
The Winter King’s blue eyes pierce the darkness, and I push my magic further, piling shadows over shades, desperate for him not to see me. I count to ten in my head, Elio still glaring at the scenery like he knows something doesn’t quite add up.
My chest heaves when he finally slams the door shut.
What the fuck is going on here? If Elio is getting cozy with Morrigan, why would he bother with the Yule pageant at all? Why wouldn’t he just marry her?
I climb out of the snow trap and double back to find Aster. I’m halfway through the path leading to the dorms when I catch a glimpse of her heading down a deep, dark passage.
“…so freaking cold…thank you…” she says, and her lips continue to move for a moment like she’s speaking to someone in front of her, but the wind drowns out the rest of her sentence.
“Come, Lori…”the breeze whispers.
I pause. “Aster? Aster, wait!”
