Under my hand, a flicker of golden light dances over the garden bed. Lingering ice heaves a sigh and melts away, snow running down the rows in silver rivulets.
“You’re doing it!” Johannes exclaims. “Look, Juho!”
“I’m standing right beside you! Where else would I be looking?”
Smiling at the kids bickering, I try again.
“I knew you had more in you than frost,” Lark encourages. Then, he leans close enough to whisper in my ear. “Told you you’re hot.”
Ignoring that, I push a little harder on the magic. Golden light spills over the bed. One by one, shoots rise along the exposed rows, unfurling tiny leaves of teal and blue.
In Mika’s arms, Eevi giggles and claps her hands. “Boo, boo. Ees, boo!”
We all look. Where blue ivy covers the wall of Sparkwillow Cottage, new leaves make a pattern of aquamarine polka dots over the dusky old growth. The crawling vines cast a web of shadows in the haze of golden light.
I stare down in awe. “Ever since we thawed Mika after the full moon, I’ve felt something warmer under the cold. I thought it was happiness, because of my love for all of you.”
Lark slips his hands around mine. “Mirror magic. When you turned your ice magic loose, you must have reached your full potential.”
Blinking, I catch his fond gaze. “You think my magic is that strong?”
“Of course. You’re our future Ice Queen, after all.”
My nose wrinkles. “That title’s taken. Maybe I’ll be the Warm Queen instead. Wait, that sounds weird…and kind of gross. The Heat Queen? Ugh, no. Maybe Spring Queen.”
He laughs. “We’ve got plenty of time to workshop names.”
“Luckily, because those are terrible,” Katja adds.
We stay and watch the garden sleepily come back to life. I free two more beds of frost, leaving them streaked with damp soil and the beginnings of growth. When I step back, Lark is there to wrap his arms around me. It makes me feel like I can do anything.
Chapter 41
Talvie
The moon is still low when Lark catches my hand and tugs me off the path. His grin spells trouble.
“The glasshouse?” he murmurs.
I snort. “Absolutely not. I can barely look Daria in the face as it is when she thanks me for the ‘improved humidity’”
Now that spring has come to Ylvara in full, Lark and I have been busy helping all around town. We rarely get time to ourselves unless we sneak around, but frost on the glasshouse windows is suspicious since it’s warmer out. I thought I was clever using my new warming magic to steam them over instead. One raised silver eyebrow the next day told me I was not, in fact, clever.
He laughs, his eyes flashing with mischief as he steers me to a clearing where moonlarks sing their evening chorus over a blanket already spread out.
“Prepared, were you?”
“Always,” he says, voice low.
I sink down beside him, the scent of new leaves and flowering meadowsweet filling the air. The moon hangs full and bright above us. Somewhere up there, Lumi is frolicking in the light of her kin, enjoying a night alone for once.
This full moon is nothing like the last. Mika is safe behind my ice, Kat watching over him while the others attend the full moon revel with the Thicket family. Pride stirs in my chest at what we’ve already done in a short time. Trade is back, gardens are flourishing, and hope ripples through the countryside. It’s the first full moon in memory without scheduled hunts, all because we convinced the palace to ban them and let us prove we can keep fenriswulfs safe when they turn.
“Did I tell you Taynia offered the palace dungeons for anyone near Rimne who needs a safe place to shift tonight?”
Lark turns to look at me. “That’s unexpected.”
“I think she’s trying. It doesn’t exactly sound cozy, but it’ll be safe.”
