Page 12 of Wings of Starlight

Clarion fought to keep the excitement from pouring out of her. She’d have to orchestrate another escape, which might prove difficult once the situation had stabilized. But for the safety of Pixie Hollow—for the chance to prove herself—she could manage it. “I do. Just tell me when—and where.”

“Would here and now work?”

“Here and…?” Clarion nearly toppled into the river as the realization struck her.Miloriwas the Warden of the Winter Woods. The Warden of the Winter Woods washere, speaking to her as though it were the most natural thing in the world. She could not keep the accusation out of her voice when she said, “You might have begun with that! Do they not teach propriety in Winter? And what is the Warden of the Winter Woods doing on the border?”

“I suppose the same thing the Queen of Pixie Hollow is.” He paused to consider it. “Or the queen-in-training, as it were. You’re looking for something.”

She could not argue with that. She crossed her arms over her chest and pinned him with a challenging stare. “I suppose I am.”

The silence pulled taut between them.

“I’m happy to conduct our meeting from this distance,” he said, tilting his head at her. Wryness played over his features as he surveyed the space she’d created when he first emerged from the woods. “But it might be easier if you came closer.”

The snowfall thickened, and when a wind gusted by, it swirled around him, partially obscuring him from view. The border was as good as a barrier between them. Besides, if he’d meant her any harm, beyond the blow he’d already dealt to her dignity, he surely would have donesomethingby now. Tentatively, Clarion crossed the distance between them again and came to stand just on the edge of Spring. Frost crunched beneath her feet when she landed.

Clarion resented the fact she had to tip her head back just slightly to meet his gaze. His eyes were as gray as the winter sky and steady on hers, and there was such terrible weariness behind them. The realization made her feel oddly off-kilter. What could trouble him enough to wear it so plainly?

Up close, she drank him in anew. A few stray wisps of hair curled around his pointed ears. But what struck her the most were his arms, wiry with muscle and completely bare beneath his lamb’s-ear tunic. She couldn’t fathom how he wasn’t chilled. Passing her hand through the border for one moment had been enough to pierce her to the bone. Would he feel similarly, if he reached toward her? Wouldshebe hot to the touch, like holding his hand to a flame? Clarion cleared her throat, determined to end that line of thought.

“What is it, then?” she asked.

The angle of the fading sunlight cast half his face in shadow. “I believe a monster will soon cross into your realm.”

It was a grim proclamation, but it had come too late. Still, if he had any information about this monster, this excursion had been worth it. She wouldn’t return to the palace entirely empty-handed. “I’m afraid it already has. Our scouts saw it just before dawn this morning.”

“I’m sorry,” he replied quietly. Something like guilt wrote itself across his expression. “I’d hoped I would have time to warn you before it reached Spring.”

Towarnme?Clarion frowned. “You saw it?”

“And I regret that I could not stop it,” he said, as though he could not speak quickly enough. She did not think she mistook the strangled emotion in those words. “But that’s why I’ve come to ask for your help.”

“My help?” She couldn’t keep the incredulity out of her voice. “Tell me what this monster is first.”

Surprise flickered across his face. For a moment, he said nothing, as if he had not heard her correctly. “You don’t know.”

Clarion was certain she looked just as baffled as he did now. “How would I?”

“Your predecessor has not been forthcoming with you,” he said, with a touch of bitterness.

“Excuse me?” She reeled back. Howdarehe fling such accusations? And if he knew what this monster was—if it had come from his realm—then he had no high ground to stand on. “Perhaps you should leash your beasts before letting them tear through the warm seasons!”

Milori looked stung, but he did not try to defend himself. It made some of her anger fizzle out. He extended a hand, as if he meant to reach through the border and still her before she fled. In the end, he must have thought better of it. He curled his fingers into a fist at his side. “Listen to me, Clarion. I can explain, but—”

“Iamlistening.”

“—but it’s too dangerous to stay here much longer. The monster is only active in darkness.”

Clarion was growing sick of being denied information she wanted. “Oh, how very convenient.”

He had the grace, at least, to look chastened. “I can be here first thing in the morning, if you’d like.”

“I…” Shewouldlike that, if only to satisfy her curiosity. “I can’t.”

Some of the gravity bled out of him, replaced instead with befuddlement. “Why not?”

“I do not know what dutiesyouhave, Warden of the Winter Woods,” she said, feeling oddly flustered, “but I have obligations. I can’t abandon them to go wherever I please—especially not to the border of Winter.”

“I see.” He raked a hand through his hair, looking somewhat overwhelmed. “The queen does not know you’re here, does she?”