Page 25 of Wings of Starlight

No, she certainly had not been.

Clearly mistaking her silence for betrayal, he added, “My knowledge is incomplete, but I believe the Queens of Pixie Hollow have information that I don’t. But when I realized you knew even less than I do…” He frowned, as if searching for the right words to make her understand. “There has not been much goodwill between our realms. I feared you wouldn’t trust me unless you heard it from Queen Elvina herself.”

“I understand,” she said quietly. He wasn’t wrong, she supposed. His shoulders slackened with relief. “How did you find out about them?”

“There is a frozen lake deep in the Winter Woods that has long been used to contain Nightmares.” As Clarion studied his face, she noticed just how exhausted he looked. The shadows feathered beneath his eyes suggested that he had not slept well in days. How long had he lain awake, worrying about his own subjects? “They’ve finally escaped.”

“Like a prison,” she murmured. Suddenly, the realization struck her. “Then you—”

“Yes,” he said wearily. “That’s why I’m called the Warden of the Winter Woods.”

What a heavy burden,she thought. No wonder now that he’d seemed so guilty. Did he truly believe this washisfault? Some part of her longed to reach out to smooth away the tension in his brow—to lay a reassuring hand on his arm. This was no longer his problem to shoulder alone. But she resisted the urge and instead, with a gentleness that surprised her, said, “I want to help you. Tell me how.”

A small measure of relief softened the worst of his despair. “There is a place called the Hall of Winter, where a copy of every text in Pixie Hollow is stored. It’s presided over by a fairy known as the Keeper of Fairy Knowledge. There’s a book in his collection that neither he nor I am able to read. He believes that only governing-talent magic can unlock it.”

Everytext in Pixie Hollow? How spectacular. Clarion would never want for answers again. But the suggestion of her magic being the key cut through her excitement. With the little scrap of power she could summon, she was a governing-talent in name only. When it truly mattered, she would let him down. But there was no sense telling him that now.

“Easy enough.” She forced a smile. “Will you bring it to me?”

“It’s too heavy to carry. Besides, the Keeper is…” Milori grimaced, which told her far more than words ever would. He must have been a fearsome sparrow man, indeed, to inspire such deference in the Warden of the Winter Woods. “I do not know what he would do if it were exposed to the elements. It’s a very old book.”

Well, that would certainly pose challenges. “What do you suggest, then?”

Without hesitation, he replied, “You’ll need to come to Winter with me.”

Her first thought wasabsolutely not—and her first instinct was to laugh—but at least her training in queenly disinterest had proven effective enough to conceal her reaction. He wanted her togo to Winter with him? It was entirely out of the question, assuming it was even possible. She could not keep the incredulity out of her voice when she said, “And how do you propose I do that?”

“The Keeper has told me that warm fairies used to cross to Winter,” Milori said uncertainly, as though he had a hard time believing it himself.

If they had, it certainly wasn’t in Elvina’s lifetime. Milori was not exaggerating when he said the Hall of Winter containedallof fairy knowledge, then. The idea that others had crossed sent a thrill through her. All the times she had wondered about the bridges’ existence and admired the carvings of Winter’s insignia throughout the palace…It made sense. Perhaps their realms trulydidbelong together.

“If you can find a way to protect your wings from the cold,” he said, “you should be able to cross for a brief period of time.”

Theoretically, that was true. As long as her wings remained insulated, they wouldn’t freeze. Clarion blew out a long, steadying breath. She could not believe she was evenconsideringsuch a dangerous plan after the promise she had made to Artemis. But if it would protect her subjects—both in Winter and the warm seasons—she had no other choice.

“All right. I don’t know how I’ll manage it yet, but…” Before she even finished her sentence, the solution came to her.Petra.If there was one fairy she could count on to devise a clever invention, it was her.

Anticipation kindled Milori’s gray eyes. “You have an idea.”

“Yes,” she said reluctantly. It would only involve conscripting the most risk-averse fairy in the entirety of Pixie Hollow into perhaps the most ill-advised scheme Clarion had ever concocted. “I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll try.”

“That’s all I ask. Thank you.”

He spoke so sincerely, sohopefully, that it made her feel almost flustered. His gratitude—and the knowledge that someone was counting on her so deeply—felt like a precious thing, indeed. She wanted to hold it close. “Of course.”

He, too, must have felt the weightiness of the silence. He glanced away before breaking it. “I suppose we don’t have any way to contact each other in the meantime. If you’d like, I can continue waiting for you here at sunset.”

“Every night?” Clarion raised an eyebrow “Does no one miss you?”

He tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“No one keeps track of you?” she prompted. Heat spread across her cheeks as she realized what exactly she’d said. “I mean…no one minds that you come to haunt the border of Spring like a ghost?”

“Ah.” If he was offended, it did not show. If anything, he seemed to enjoy this rapport they’d fallen into. “If the winter fairies knew that I was—what did you say, haunting the border?—then they might not be pleased. But it’s spring now, so things are quiet. Besides, who is there, really, to mind what I do? No one is above me in station but you.”

No one but you.

Her heart tripped over itself as she turned over those words. It felt as though he’d woven some spell, one that made the world narrow to this: the snow settling gently over the earth and the steadiness of his gaze on her.