Lux was severely reconsidering her assent in attending such an event.“Will you go?”
Riselda inhaled the paper, filling her lungs with its scent. “I haven’t decided.” Her eyes sought Lux’s again. “Will you? I assume from your questions that you haven’t attended before.”
Lux shook her head, draining her teacup. “I’ve never had the desire to step within that house again. But now, I wonder—” Cut off as if of their own volition, the words grew heavy, and she couldn’t pull them out. Lux swallowed against her tight throat.
Where did this bout of anxiety rear from? Why couldn’t she tell Riselda her concerns, her frightening theories? Her aunt had been closer to him at one time than his own family if rumor could be believed. She may have heard something or noticed peculiar happenings.
Lux tried again. The words bit into her tongue.
“But now you wish to experience it?” Riselda finished for her. “I can’t imagine it’s much changed. The mayor only lays out the most beautiful banquet, dozens of wines and barrel-agedciders. The music is lovely, and the dancing…” Riselda grinned devilishly. “With the right clothing and your eyes, you would never be without a partner.”
Lux scoffed. “That’s hardly my priority.”
“Oh, but it should be, Lucena.” Riselda’s stare darkened. “It should be.”
Lux pulled her gaze away. There would be no dancing for her. Her muddled plan was to greet the mayor with one breath, place a ludicrous gift upon the table with the next, and sneak quietly into the shadows.
She couldn’t very well hunt for the mayor’s secrets whiledancing.With a muffled laugh, she stretched as she stood, then strode to the door.
“Where are you off to?”
Lux paused. “A walk.”
Riselda’s eyes roved over her face before she smiled. “Fresh air is important. Tell the crow I say hello.”
Lux opened her mouth, then closed it. What could she say anyway? Turning with eyes uncomfortably wide and feeling uncomfortably seen, she ascended the steps.
The crow perched uponthe bridge, its interest revealed in the haughty tilt of its head. Twilight neared, and the bird expected her. Lux’s fingers brushed against the familiar stones.
“Riselda says hello, crow.”
The bird cocked its sleek dark head further, studying her. She shook her head. Absurd animal. It hopped closer.
The air thickened, the wind hushed, and Lux drew in a deep breath full of damp grass, old stone and a lone, brave wildflower. Her gaze found that of the forest as feathers brushed her arm. She ran a finger absently along the bird’s head.Twilight.
Tall, dark, and crooked, the trees spiraled up and forward, leaning toward Ghadra as if they could smell the scent of itsoccupants, and longed for much, much more. Blackened leaves hung still, unmoving, stuck fast to ink-dark branches that twisted in whichever direction they chose. Sometimes, when the fog shifted, Lux could trick herself into seeing a thin branch curl inward. Inward and out again.
Lucena. Lucenaaa.
Lux glowered at the forest, and the crow cawed. Something was changing. Or had changed? So small, she couldn’t understand it, yet so large—
One hand trailed the length of the bridge until the stone fell away to nothing. Until Lux stepped amongst the grass on its opposite side for the first time in her life. Startled, she didn’t remember ever having moved. The air was so still she could feel every breath stretch and unravel around her. Yet leaves rustled through the deepening grey. She blinked against branches curling inward.
A trick of the fog.
A trick.
Lucena.
Tears pricked her eyes. Lux crouched, letting her fingers brush wet blades of grass—grass she’d never touched. It didn’tfeelany different, but…shouldn’t it? She pushed to her feet. She stared into the darkness, and that darkness beckoned.
This time, she would see what it had to say.
A frigid breeze gustedfrom the wood like an exhale, enveloping Lux, piercing exposed skin. Crossing one black sleeve over the other, she stood still, craning her neck. Up and up.
The forest edge. She could touch it if she wanted. Her fingertips dug further into her forearms instead, leaving half-moon imprints along their lengths.
Why was she doing this? What did she hope to find? She didn’t know. But she knew she would enter the wood anyway. A surgeof reckless adrenaline warmed her, a torch to her fear, and Lux’s lips twitched into an awful sort of smile, a fragmented chuckle up her throat. Because surely its darkness wasn’t any deeper than that having rooted within her soul so long ago?
