Page 70 of Wings of Starlight

There was no doubt in Clarion’s mind what had happened, then. After their fight at the ball, Petra had told Elvina where Clarion had gone. Mortification had churned sickeningly within Clarion. But now, betrayal seared through all her humiliation, all her indignation. As much as it wounded her, it did not surprise her.

“What are you doing here?” was all Clarion could think to ask.

This, apparently, was not the expected or desired reply. Elvina’s aura flared brighter with outrage. “Am I to understand thatthisis what has consumed you over these last few weeks?Thisis what has made you so curious about Winter? I expected better of you, Clarion.”

“This is my responsibility,” Milori cut in. There was no trace of coldness in his voice—only an unbearable earnestness. Despite the diadem around his brow, he seemed willing to kneel.

Clarion shot him a disbelieving glare. Ofcoursehe would attempt to take on the brunt of Elvina’s wrath himself. “It isnot—”

“I sought her help in remedying my mistake,” Milori continued, undeterred. “Everything she has done has been at my behest. Forgive me, Your Majesty.”

Elvina stared at him as though he were little more than an insect, far beneath her notice. The disgust on her face made anger spark bright within Clarion. Now that she knew what Elvina believed of winter fairies, she knew it was pointless to argue. No matter what he said, it would never satisfy or convince her.

Still, Clarion could not allow Milori to accept the blame for this. He could not martyr himself any longer; he had already done so in a hundred different ways. He was meant for so much more than that. For too long, winter fairies had been ignored and maligned for something they had nobly volunteered for. Clarion could not stand here and be complicit in it any longer. The burden the Wardens of the Winter Woods had taken from the Queens of Pixie Hollow was immense; they deserved to be honored for it.

“You’re wrong about him.” Clarion stepped in front of Milori, as though she could shield him from Elvina’s open disdain. “About all of them. The Winter Woods are nothing at all like we believed.”

“We will discuss this at home,” Elvina said through clenched teeth. “Come with me. Now.”

“No.”

Her voice rang in the silence, and the stars above seemed to punctuate it, flaring brighter with the force of her emotion. Elvina reeled back. She looked almost baffled, as though she hardly knew what to do or what petulant creature had replaced Clarion, her collected and controlled heir. Clarion herself hardly knew where she’d summoned the nerve from.

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice,” Elvina said.

“He’s been working with me to stop the Nightmares! If you would just listen to me—”

“Clarion,” Elvina said warningly.

“Everything I have done has been to protect Pixie Hollow. Can you say the same?”

Elvina recoiled as if slapped. “Excuse me?”

Clarion’s hands shook with the sudden rush of adrenaline. She barely recognized herself. This righteous anger felt as though it would incinerate her. But it burned like a wildfire, and she could not very well stop it now. “You have had no regard for your subjects in Winter. You planned to turn your back on them and leave them with an impossible task! Governing-talent magic is the only thing that can stop the Nightmares, but you have been completely uninterested in—”

Elvina let out a single note of humorless laughter. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I do,” Clarion insisted. Now that she had begun, she would not be silenced. “Winter fairies have too long been the victims of our incomplete understanding of history, and I will not see it stand. Mil—the Warden of the Winter Woods is not what you thought him to be.”

“No,” Elvina said darkly. “He is young. He hasn’t yet had a chance to grow into what he might become: ambitious, like his predecessor, or corrupted by the beasts that poison everything they touch. You are not safe with him.”

Beside her, Milori winced.

So that was it? She would disregard everything Clarion had said? “I have never been anywhere safer.”

Elvina advanced toward her. By the look in her eyes, it seemed she was ready and willing to drag Clarion off this bridge herself. “He’s already turned you against me.”

“No,youhave turned me against you!” The words slipped out before she could stop herself, halting Elvina in her tracks. Her voice trembled. And yet, it was the truth she had not wanted to admit. “I have tried to live up to the standard you have set, all in the hopes that I would be worthy of the crown. I have tried so hard to be just like you. But I’m not. This is what Winter has taught me.”

Her magic flared within her, rising with the tide of her emotions. She was made luminous with the force of her conviction. Even through her coat, the radiance of her wings washed Elvina’s stunned face a pallid white.

“No. You are certainly not,” Elvina said—but it was not horror in her voice. It was something like wonder.

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Petra said quietly, peering out from the thicket she’d hidden behind. Her face had gone ashen. “But I think there’s something wrong.”

She pointed, and Clarion’s gaze followed the path she’d indicated to the sky. Now that she mentioned it, somethingdidfeel wrong. Sometime in the last few minutes, the darkness of night had deepened.

The clouds hung low and threatening, clotting over the full moon and all its attendant stars. Energy crackled through the air and prickled along her arms. The weather-talents had said nothing about a rainstorm, but…No, this wasn’t the promise of lightning. It felt worse, almost sinister. She shuddered.