Gods, is this what it feels like to play? To be foolish? To be free?
I never got to be a child. There was always something that needed doing, someone to look after, something to worry over. My life has never been light enough to spare time for joy.
But now, running across icy stone with my braid whipping behind me, cheeks burning and snowballs flying, joy crashes over me so fiercely I nearly forget how to breathe.
I scoop another snowball and throw it with perfect, furious precision.
It clips one sprite’s wing and sends the little creature reeling into a wall.
It lets out a high-pitched squeak before sliding down the stone in a dazed heap.
“Oh, no!” I gasp, rushing over. I crouch beside it, hands hovering uselessly. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry. Are you alright? Can you hear…?”
Something yanks my braid so violently my feet leave the floor.
I yelp, kicking wildly as I’m hoisted four feet into the air. The second sprite has both clawed hands wrapped tight around my braid, wings beating furiously, cackling right into my face.
“Put me down! Put me…!”
It drops me.
I hit the floor on my backside with an undignified thud, wincing as the shock ripples up my spine. The sprite, delighted by my suffering, zips away down the hall.
Gritting my teeth, I scramble to my feet and chase it, just in time to see it come to an abrupt halt before the locked door near the rose garden.
The forbidden door.
The one Atilia told me never to enter.
I roll another snowball in my palms, stalking toward the sprite with exaggerated stealth. My smile stretches wide, tongue poking out the side of my mouth as I take aim.
But before I can release it, the sprite reaches for the lock. Frost bursts from its fingertips.
The metal freezes solid, whitening, then graying, before snapping clean in half and dropping to the floor, where it shatters into glittering dust.
My jaw drops.
The sprite turns to me, waggling its fingers on either side of its almond-shaped head, tongue stuck out in a mocking raspberry.
Then with wicked glee it ducks through the door and disappears into the forbidden room.
I pause.
There are so many reasons Ishouldfollow the little menace through that door.To win this snowball war once and for all.To drag the creature out by its pointy ears.To discover for myself why this room is forbidden.
But there is one singular, blaring reason Ishould notstep inside.
Luceran.
He has made a point of avoiding me. Ignored every meal I prepared. Boarded my windows shut. I have no doubt that if he catches me in that room, I’ll spend the rest of my short life in the Aurevault.
But still… he’s not here.
Is he?
I take a hesitant step toward the threshold, but a sharp squeak stops me in my tracks.
I jolt and look down. The other sprite, still sore from the snowball that sent it crashing into the wall, scrambles upright. Its wings buzz in a frantic blur as it shoots into the air and hovers mere inches from my nose, shaking its head so violently its whole body wobbles.
