Page 88 of Midwinter Wiles & Valerian Dreams
I stand and take a breath, dislodging Hugo so I can don my skirts. “When you all leave, I’ll pick up the pieces and figure out how to move on. But I won’t be like her. I won’t fear being open to love, even if it might hurt.”
Hugo chirps at me, digs at the blankets, then spins a circle before flopping down again right where he started. I think he’s trying to get rid of me. Spiky little rat.
Lumi’s response is kinder. “Lumi will stay. Always with you, Valkie.”
I loop the necklace over my head as she returns to her moonstone form.
Hugo snuffles, and I give him a smile. “You’re a good listener, Hugo. Now don’t go telling any of that to Lark, got it?”
I snicker as I pull back my hair, ready to join whatever sliver-removal madness awaits me beyond the door.
Chapter 31
Talvie
Two days later, the Ice Queen arrives with all the bluster of a winter gale. Her carriage runners swish across Ylvara’s snowy streets, no heed paid to any unfortunate soul scrambling to avoid the charging white reindeer. The silver tips of their antlers reflect the midday sun in blinding flashes, and when the whole procession finally glides to an elegant stop outside the Laisi Mula Inn, and the harness bells fall silent, the hushed crowd gathered to watch look frozen in place. Ylvara isn’t ready for this.
Then a footman dismounts and opens the carriage door, and my stepmother-dearest emerges in an avalanche of velvet overcoats and embroidered skirts. She gazes at the building in front of her without expression, only a pursing of red lips below her inky hair. It’s pinned in an intricate series of loops today, with the lock of pure white at the front left curled by her cheek. An attendant rushes to gather Queen Taynia’s train, lest her skirts dare to brush the packed snow.
A pit opens in my stomach, and I’m quick to duck back around the corner of the inn. Leaning against the wall, I suck in a fortifying breath.
“I can do this,” I whisper to no one.
Lumi believes in you.
“Thanks, and I believe in you too, because if your reflections don’t hide me, we both know what happens.”
Lumi has this. Now go slay your dragon.
I can’t help but smile. My moon friend has been hanging around my dramatic orphan friends too much. Since we revealed her, she’s spent several evenings hovering around inside the cottage, chatting up the kids, imparting random facts, and helping them run lines. I think they like her. Oddly, none of them have brought up what a celestial is doing with a Wilder Fae since that night in the forest. Maybe Lark said something to them.
The inn is humming when I enter from the rear door, my braid askew from my quick run outside. I couldn’t stop myself. I needed to see her, needed a moment to breathe. To prepare.
Since we received word yesterday that the queen’s entourage would stayhereat the Laisi Mula, it’s been all hands on duty. Even Lark’s little beasties are helping. My arms ache from scrubbing every surface to gleaming perfection, and the tension crackling in the air has worn my nerves thin.
Daria’s voice breaks from the back like lightning. “Plates! Where are the extra plates? Anyone?”
There’s a crash near the pantry, a muffled shout, and Helkki’s distinctive, “I’m not a server!”
Then the front door opens.
The air shifts. Conversations die mid-word. Even the fire in the hearth seems to lower its crackle to listen. Daria appears, her hands smoothing her apron and tugging back wisps of silver hair as she bustles to the front.
Beron is the first to enter.
Casual and confident as always, he’s dressed in black with his travel cloak crisp and sharp, down to the royal blue embroidered collar standing stiff around his neck. No smile, no slouching, not a duskwine hair out of place. Just cool composure and tension in his jaw as his gaze sweeps the room.
It passes over the hearth, the tavern entrance, the stairs to the rooms above…then it catches.
His expression doesn’t change, not exactly. It’s only a breath. A blink. But his eyes find mine.
Then he looks away. Takes in the coat closet, the staff waiting…
Only the prickle up my spine tells me I didn’t imagine it. But I must have. There’s no reason for him to suspect.
I shake the strange moment off, adjusting my grip on the tray I picked up. Lumi’s illusion is holding. I don’t need to check or hide, no matter how strong the urge.
Behind another pair of guards, the Queen enters.
