“I didn’t know that.” Charlotte had seen many of the people searching for her, the korrigan’s magic helping her blend into the riverbank and the woods. But she had never seen Julian among them.
“It was after all the official searches stopped. Father wouldn’t let me join them; I think he was afraid of what I might see, and now that I’m older, I don’t blame him for that. But I knew you were a good swimmer. I’d swam in that same river with you a dozen times. I told my father I was going to school, and then I crept past the schoolhouse and went down to the river. I told Lady Sibba I’d been ill. It took about a week before they caught on to me.”
“You went every day?”
Julian laughed. “I wasn’t the best at avoiding getting caught. You were better at that, from what I recall.”
Mostly true, although Charlotte had plenty of missteps of her own. “I never saw you.”
“But you were close. You were nearby, weren’t you?”
“Probably,” said Charlotte. “The korrigans tend to stay near that part of the river, although they do move to the lake and beyond at times. But I might have been nearby.”
Julian looked up, unable to look Charlotte in the eye. “I liked to think you were nearby. Hey.” He pointed to something green near the top of the archway. “Is that mistletoe?”
The breath caught in Charlotte’s lungs. There was a spark of something between them, rivalry or not. There was a history, a friendship deep and pure that had been lurking under the surface, ready to resume at the first opportunity. Charlotte had tried to reject the feeling once she learned of Julian’s plans, but it tugged at her, willing her to look upwards into Julian’s eyes.
They were soft and filled with the sparking reflections of the Solstice lights. Charlotte felt the pull of them, saw the tilt of Julian’s head, the lean in, the warmth of his body near hers.
She leaned too, gave into the urge for a moment. They could argue about the shop later. She could find a way to get him to come around. It didn’t matter right now. It was a nice night, a nice moment—
Finnli crashed into Charlotte’s legs. “Ow! Oh! Miss Ainsley. I’m sorry Miss Ainsley. Ow!”
“Are you alright?” asked Charlotte, feeling the earth return under her feet along with the throbbing of her knee. The dwarf boy was on the ground rubbing his elbow.
“Mmhmm,” said Finnli, his little mouth set into a line, his eyes full of tears.
“Let’s see it.” Charlotte took a look at his elbow—not a mark on it, but she bet it hurt nonetheless. Her knee surely did. “You’re a brave little soldier. You’ll be alright.”
Finnli nodded and slowly stood. “We lost the coin,” he said to Julian.
“What are you talking about?” asked Julian. “It’s right here.”
Julian plucked another silver from behind Finnli’s ear, returning the smile to his face.
Charlotte’s heart fluttered and flipped in her chest.
If she hadn’t been in trouble before, she was in trouble now.
Chapter Eleven
THE SOLSTICE PARTY
Alison
The night of the Solstice lighting had been chaotic but incredible.
Alison worried that the out-of-town visitors would panic at the sight of the spriggan, but she didn’t want him to be excluded when he’d been so critical to procuring the tree. An hour before dusk, she had led him up the side of the church to the tower where he’d hung on, doing his best impression of a vine.
It was a little unnerving—Alison was still a bit touchy where vines were concerned—but it had worked. No one seemed any the wiser about the spriggan’s presence, but he had been able to see the spectacle firsthand.
Once the crowd had gone, she led him into the square to see the tree up close.
“Remarkable,” he said. “Like little bursts of sunlight at nighttime. And look how it shines on the jewelry. I would like to have one of those jewels one day.”
The ornaments on the Solstice tree were too big for the spriggan to wear in his ordinary form, but Alison had taken him to the forge to see if Strelka had any smaller ones to give away from her practice attempts.
They were in luck: there was a box of gold and silver ornaments meant for the much smaller tree that usually occupied the market square. The spriggan chose a silver ornament and hung it from the side of his head, roughly where Strelka wore her earrings.
