“Which inn should we go to?” I whispered as we inched over a cobbled road. Dusk has swept over the village, transforming the hazy sky to charcoal. Strings of flickering lights dangled from branches curling over the street, slipping down like glowing vines. The tallest elves brushed them aside to avoid walking into them. The street was mostly empty, but those who walked it wore red.

“It doesn’t matter. Pick one.” Zane reminded me of a cracking marble statue without the spark in his eyes, the flush in his cheeks, or the vibrance in his words. In fact, with his pale irises, he looked like…

I swallowed. He looked like his mother.

A carriage crunched over the ice-patched street. As it passed, I caught a glimpse of metal cages filled with snow rabbits. The creatures’ ears were wilted as they huddled together, their mouths tipped into frowns. It was the first time I felt an ounce of remorse for the obnoxious little critters and my gaze followed the cages until they disappeared around the bend.

I guided Zane to the nearest inn. A collection of bells sang when I pushed the door open, and the spicy scents of citrus and holly berries engulfed us. Candles rested atop a long beam-countertop where a Red elf was sorting room keys.

“I’d like a room, please.” My request brought her head up from her work. She looked at me oddly, at my dull Trite eyes. But she nodded and picked up a key. I reached for it, but she drew it back, laying her other hand flat. I was a breath away from offering to clean her lobby as a trade for payment when Zane slipped his arm from me and drew a satchel from his pocket.

“How many rings?” he asked the elf, then coughed.

The elf looked us up and down. “Ten plus six,” she decided, revealing a cringingly high voice.

“Ten plus six?” I objected.

But the elf shrugged, bunching her puffed sleeves. “Our taxes to the Red Kingdom were raised this quarter past. Bad tidings befall us all.”

“This is all I have. Take it,” Zane said, handing the woman the satchel. The elf raised a brow, but she grabbed the satchel and stuffed it into her dress pocket. With one last look down her nose, she slid a copper key with a threaded ticket over the wood counter. I scooped it up, biting back my complaints.

Zane linked his hand through mine, and I guided him past the lobby and down the hall until I found our room.

The room was the size of a closet. There wasn’t enough space for one of us to lay on the narrow bed and another to lay flat on the floor. A chair took up the corner, and when Zane realized what it was, he slumped down into it, padding his hand along the wall to find a place to rest his Patrol staff.