While one side of the pond offered shallow, muddy shores, the rest was rimmed with scattered pines, boxelder trees, and a cluster of enormous, gray boulders. The rocks were tall enough that the older children would sometimes jump from them into the water below, though Nox could imagine few fates more horrifying than plunging into its brackish, brown depths. Amaris led Nox around the pond’s rim, scaling tenaciously up the side of one of the boulders farthest from the water.

Nox scrambled up the edge with less grace. She examined her reddened palms for loose pine needles and scrapes as she approached the place where Amaris crouched. Toward the middle, a white-gold cluster of strange rocks seemed to grow from the boulder itself, almost like mushrooms from a rotting log.

“Your jewels?”

“Aren’t they pretty! They’re too far from the water for jumping, so I don’t think the others have found them.”

Perhaps they’d found them, perhaps they hadn’t. Clearly, no one had cared enough about the scaly, sparkly rock to chip it from its boulder and bring it into the manor. Nox picked at it curiously, wondering how a rock could flake like pastry dough.

“How many pretty rocks do you think Achard is worth?” Nox asked, jutting her chin to the obnoxious pack of boys.

“Oh! I’ve already done the math on this one,” Amaris said. She scraped the rock against the boulder, dusting the resulting film onto her palm. She offered her handful of stardust to Nox, saying, “Here you are. Go buy yourself an Achard.”

Nox’s cheeks ached from smiling. It felt good to laugh. The sunshine tumbled from the sky, down her throat and into her belly.

Amaris sent the sparkling powder into the sky with a single puff. She giggled as the dust glittered around them, a sound that reminded Nox of the tinkling of silver bells that covered the manor during the yule holidays. Her wit was sharper than her genteel exterior made others believe. She was little but had the dry, sidelong humor jokes and quick responses that Nox had only heard in passing from the eldest children or the least pious matrons. It was one in a list of ten thousand things she loved about Amaris. She couldn’t imagine what life would be like if they weren’t together.

“Oh, Amaris!” Nox gasped, looking up from the distant shores.

“What?” Amaris froze.

Nox grabbed the hem of her dress and immediately began to dab at a splotch of blood on Amaris’s knee. Amaris made a frustrated sound but sank into the rock, allowing the small wound to be cleaned.

“You’re lucky it doesn’t look bad. But they won’t be happy.” Nox sighed.

“They’re never happy.”