from

nya'

the midnight silence like

might break through my chest. The air was heavy with the scent of lavender and old wood, clinging to the back of my

ith curling vines and tiny roses, the worn-down dip where my body

shouldn't

lain figurines on the mantel, the gold-rimmed mirror above the vanity-everything was just as I remembered it. As

o, no

em until my knuckles turned white.

oblet... the cold look in Ze

hand to my stomach. No wound. No pain. Just the ghost of it, as though

I

d back by some cr

nock sta

is

fr

t v

tinged with concern. My heart lodged in my throat

ive the intrusion, but it's nearly

ouldn't move. The door creaked open slowly, and the girl

uldn'

the name torn from m

lf-illuminated, and smi

rld t

ar

iv

ol

ath

hem, the same silver locket I'd given her on her seventeenth birthday. Her eye

e cracked. "But yo

her brow furrowing.

elf. My voice felt miles away. "You

ight. "Miss, I think you must be dreaming still. Per

The fire? The- the letter? They said it was an acc

atures. "There's never been a fire in the man

d at he

he warmth in her eyes. The lines in her palms. The lilt in her voice wh

it?" I asked suddenl

8th of Embermoon

t ye

of the Silver Crescent, Mis

.. six months before the w

g. Elara approached cautiously, kneeling beside the bed. Her h

murmured. "You must hav

. Desperately. But my h

, "do you remember last winter's festiv

You wore those ridiculous boo

did you say to me when I trie

d you not to be foolish. That I'

any crack, any glitch in this impossible mirac

uietly. "I di

stung

I saw yo

ew ver

y. I begged for a second chance. And then

deepened, but sh

You've been here all along. Nothing's ha

I wa

anym

That's what thi

Not a delusio

re

itself had granted it to me, the

like it was the only solid thing left in

d, brow furrowed in co

lty that had always bound us together, beyond titles and

her

ld not wa

had granted it, I would find the truth. I

would chang

it kil