The cold bit right through her well-worn cloak.But she ignored it as she closed the door behind her, then lit the lantern.
Her breath came in smoky plumes as her booted feet crunched on the newly fallen snow.And it was still snowing.Tiny flakes danced in the wind, fluttering down to the ground.By morning, it would be a thick blanket.She hoped to be back by then.
Every step she took was another step toward something dangerous.But shehadto know.
The lantern swung at her side, spilling light across the snow to light her way.Houses were dark.Gray smoke curled from chimneys.She should be in bed, buried beneath her quilts, sleeping like the rest of the village.But instead, she needed answers.
And the stranger was going to give them to her.
The climb up the mountain was never easy.Made even more difficult by the swirling snow.The embankment was slick with mud as she made her way up.But determination was stronger than turning back.Her breath misted in the chill.The lantern splashed golden light over the bracken not yet coated with snow.
As she approached, worry gnawed through her.Worry that she might lose a piece of herself once again to the stranger at the Well of Wishes.Echoes of her last two visits haunted her.
Make your wish, he’d intoned.
And she had looked into his green-blue eyes.Eyes that peered back at her with a mixture of curiosity, bemusement, and, perhaps, even regret.
She shoved aside branches as she made her way.The closer she got to the well, the thicker the air seemed to be.Oppressive silence pressed all around her.There were no nocturnal sounds here.She hadn’t noticed that before.
As she crested the hill, she froze.
There, sitting on the edge of the well, was the stranger.His ungloved hands were making symbols in the air.Cool moonlight slashed through the treetops overhead, bathing in an ominous blue-white glow.He pulled shafts of light toward him, spun them into threads, and flung them skyward where they burst into sparks.It was beautiful—and terrifying.A reminder of what he was, and what he had already taken from her.
As though he were practicing.
Or bored.
He never looked at her as he spoke.“Most mortals come only once.Twice if they’re desperate.You must beverydesperate, Serena Windriver.”
“You…” Her breath fogged in the cold, ragged and uneven, and she lost all thought, all nerve.
She should turn around and go back home.Leave this strange man with his golden threads of magic to himself.He dropped his hands and turned to her, a look of bemused resignation on his handsome features.The hood still draped his head, hiding most of his face.
“Come for another wish?”he asked.
“No,” she said, her voice terse.
He lifted a brow.“Curious.Then why are you—”
“You tricked me,” she interrupted, her fury rising.
A faint smile lifted the corners of his lips.“You made a bargain, dear girl.All bargains come with a price.Which you paid.”
A shudder went through her.“What did you take from me?”
“That I cannot tell you.”
“Why not?”
He remained silent as he peered at her from across the way.Nothing between them but thick emotion and thicker silence.Next to him, moonlight cast down into the well, illuminating the old moss-covered stones.Which seemed to shimmer.
“We struck a bargain.What’s done is done,” he said.
A half-formed memory floated through her mind.A crown of flowers.A woman’s face—gentle and kind—and then it was gone when she tried to grasp it.
“But I-I can’t remember.”Her breath hitched, pluming once again in front of her.“I should remember.”
“That’s the nature of the thing,” he said, his voice calm and even.“The Well takes what it will.”
