Nox hadn’t participated directly in the rumors, but it was hard to miss what was said at dinnertime after the boy’s departure. Some of the children swore he could speak to the trees. Others insisted they’d seen him move the wind. The child may have been utterly powerless, possessing little more than a single telltale feature of a fae lineage, but it hadn’t mattered. The bishop had taken him from the manor, and the boy was never heard from again.

Nox had asked Matron Mable what use the bishop had of him. The matron said that some religious folk believed both the fae and those born with the small magics to be manifestations of the goddess’s power. As such, Farehold’s fae were often conscripted to work by the church or put in servitude to the crown. Whispered rumors circulated that the faeling was somewhere in a house of the goddesses, living in fine robes, worshipping the All Mother and eating as much fruit as he liked. Fae were so rare in Farehold that Nox felt with some certainty it had been her first and last opportunity to meet one, halfling though he might have been.

She decided that being born fae in such a world seemed like more of a curse than a blessing. Being different in any capacity was a threat. She had been separated from the others, given tasks and assignments and stations for years based largely on her looks. Even Amaris, with her moonlit hair and lilac eyes, was guarded like a secret to prevent the very same fate from happening to her.

It was attractive to think that the fae boy was living a beautiful life, but Nox didn’t believe in happy endings. The others invented stories to help make sense of a chaotic world, but their daydreams made the world no less terrible. She wouldn’t rob them of their doe-eyed dreams, but in a world so cold, she knew better than to let herself hope.

Cloak draped over her arm, she left the foyer and headed for the stairs. She turned down the corridor and hurried along the line of dormitories, stopping at the third dorm on the right. Her face shifted the moment she opened the door. The heaviness she carried fell from her shoulders like rainwater off a roof. Nox beamed at her white-haired friend alone inside.

“Finally!”

“You ready, Snowflake?”

Amaris was on the bed closest to the door. Her smile glowed the moment Nox entered the room. Her feet dangled off the edge as her hands clutched either side of the mattress, feet kicking impatiently. She hopped up from the bed, her starlight hair hanging loosely down her back.

“I found a thing for you.”

Nox smiled. “You always find things.”