Page 49 of Wings of Starlight

“Good morning,” Artemis replied stiltedly.

Clarion let her gaze volley between them for a moment, trying not to let her exasperation show. “Are you going to invite us in?”

Petra groaned but stepped aside to admit them. “You have that look in your eyes again. What is it this time?”

Best just to get it over with,Clarion decided. She cleared a new pile of detritus from Petra’s kitchen table, then upended the contents of her bag onto its surface.

Petra let out a soft wail of dismay. “What have youdone?”

Clarion winced. “I might have gotten into a little accident.”

Artemis pinned her with a flat stare that said,You could have handled that better.

“All my hard work, ruined! Completely ruined!” Petra picked up the jaggedly cut sleeve of the coat. After a moment’s inspection, she hurled it across the room with a yelp of surprise. “Is thatblood?”

“Keep your voice down,” Clarion hissed. “Yes, it’s blood. It’s nothing to worry about.”

Petra seized Clarion’s shoulders and shook them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Artemis shift, as though debating whether or not to intervene. In the end, she let out a long-suffering sigh and folded her arms behind her back.

“What do youmeanit’s nothing to worry about?” Petra demanded. “There are monsters on the loose, and you’ve suddenly decided to gallivant around the Winter Woods, and now you show up on my doorstep with blood on your clothes?”

As much as she resented the suggestion that she wasgallivanting, when Petra put it like that, Clarion supposed it sounded a little bad. “It looks a lot worse than it is. I’m not hurt. Not badly, anyway.”

She pulled up her sleeve to show Petra the thin strip of gauze bound to her forearm. Mercifully, it concealed the stitches underneath. Petra let her go and slumped heavily into an armchair. Something in the far corner of the room tipped over and clanged to the ground. Petra hardly flinched. “I know I said I didn’t want to know, but I’ve decided the not-knowing is much worse than the alternative. What is going on with you?”

There was something in her voice deeper than her usual anxiety. There was a real plea there, and Petra was staring at her with an accusation in her eyes:I feel like I don’t know you anymore.

She hated disappointing Petra—and not knowing how to stop. But if she couldn’t be honest with her, what friendship did they really have anymore? Clarion couldn’t lose her after everything they’d been through together.

“If I tell you,” Clarion said, “you have to promise not to tell anyone.”

“I didn’t tell anyone you were going into the Winter Woods before,” she said defeatedly. “I hate keeping secrets, though, Clarion. You know I’m terrible at it, but…I’ll try. For you.”

With as much levity as she could muster, Clarion said, “You have to promise not to scream, either.”

Petra glared at her, which Clarion chose to take as agreement.

“About two weeks ago, when the Nightmare was first spotted in Pixie Hollow, I went to the border of Winter. I thought I’d find a trail there. I didn’t, but there was something else there…well,someone.” She took a deep breath. “The Warden of the Winter Woods.”

Petra looked on the verge of either fainting or combusting. “The Warden of the Winter Woods? You mettheWarden of the Winter Woods?”

“Just listen.” Clarion took hold of her elbow. “I was a little skeptical at first. He isn’t all that bad once you get to know him.”

“How reassuring.” Petra laughed breathlessly, the sound fraying at the edges. Then, something dawned on her. “You’ve met multiple times, then?”

“A few.”

Petra gasped. “Did you cross the border to see him?”

Clarion flushed. “Yes. But—”

“You’re sneaking out to see aboy?” Petra sounded positively disgusted, but there was no real bite to it. She’d never had much of an eye for sparrow men; the very notion of finding one comely enough to risk life and limb for was surely confounding.

Artemis made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a stifled laugh.

“It’s not like that!” Clarion protested, and she realized too late it was not exactly a denial. Petra’s eyes gleamed with vicious triumph. “We’ve found a way to stop the Nightmares. Which is why I need your—”

“And this is what stopping them looks like?” Petra jabbed a finger at the coat crumpled in the corner. “You should have no part in it. It’s too dangerous.”