Page 51 of When Roses Burn
She beamed as she waved back at me. “Finally, someone who’s not a moody hairball.”
Giggles came from the rafters around her.
“What is she?” a tiny voice whispered.
Knox wiped more flour off his face and flicked it away. He scowled at Bertie before stalking toward me, grasping my elbow, and leading me across the great hall with its wide planked floors and high, wooden ceiling.
Scattered rosebushes speckled the room and the expansive stairs across from us. Like the ones in the bailey, these roses were healthier than the ones in town.
What little sunlight there was in this kingdom spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows on each side of the room. It illuminated patches of the floor and the plants, positioned to get as much exposure to it as possible.
Despite Knox’s brisk strides, my head craned around as I tried to take in everything at once, and my feet stumbled more than they walked. This place was unlike anything I’d ever seen before, and I wanted to drink in every detail of it.
It was more of a castle entwined and at one with nature. In the center of the room, a tree rose from the floor and stretched toward a hole in the ceiling. Its sweeping limbs spread across the room and, at some points, entangled with the thick beams.
Any rain that fell was funneled down the branches to the hole in the center of the floor. An assortment of stones edged the hole; I couldn’t make out the carvings on the rocks, but something was etched there.
Like the other trees in the kingdom, this one didn’t have any leaves yet, but its buds were thicker and healthier than the ones in the woods. Some of them had started to unfurl enough to reveal an assortment of reds, greens, yellows, and oranges. It must be magnificent when fully leafed out.
I understood why the sprites liked it here. It looked as if the forest had come inside as ivy circled the banisters all the way up the stairs and entwined around the balconies above. The plants created a cascade of green as they spilled down to the lower levels. And the smell was rich and earthy like the woods after rain. I loved it.
The sprites had to be the ones maintaining the plants. They must use their abilities to keep everything inside the castle healthier.
I suspected that’s why Knox let them stay, even if he looked murderous over their prank. This castle was where he grew up; it most likely contained his family and everyone he knew best when the curse happened. And for the sprites, this residence was a reprieve from the despair outside and a haven from any predators.
“Who is she, Knox?” Bertie called.
“I hope you plan on cleaning up this mess, Bertie,” he said instead of answering her.
When more giggles came from the rafters and dozens of sprites revealed themselves, Knox stopped walking. All the sprites were about a foot tall, but their wings and appearances varied greatly. Some individuals had darker skin and hair, while others had hair in various shades of blue, purple, and pink.
Several had orange or blue butterfly wings, while others possessed delicate, see-through wings with silver edges. Various ones had wings in the shape of a dragonfly and were see-through or multihued.
I gawked at them as dozens more materialized in the rafters. They spread across the vast hall, and a few perched in the tree’s branches and on the balcony railings.
“Do we ever leave a mess, Knox?” Bertie inquired sweetly.
“Yes.”
When the sprites all tittered, their laughter sounded like musical bells. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at the beautiful sound.
“Does it look like we trash the place?” a male sprite asked.
“You just dumped a pound of flour on my head,” Knox retorted.
“That was to make you laugh.”
“It was to make you laugh.”
The sprites all giggled as their heads bobbed up and down.
“Clean up this mess,” Knox commanded.
“Always so grouchy and moody now,” Bertie muttered. “You used to be a lot more fun.”
The sadness in her voice tugged at my heart, and I pondered how well she’d known Seth before he became this.
“I used to be a lot of things,” he retorted, “and now I’m not.”
