I don’t know how long I remained curled there, but eventually the cold seeped through into every part of me, driving out any lingering warmth from our embrace. Even in this protected valley it wasn’t warm enough to stay outside and still for so long without a fire.

But the cold wasn’t the only thing that had taken root inside me. I didn’t need fire, I could save us all without it. I had promised myself I could, and I would not back down now.

I suspected the elders wouldn’t even accept Oliver’s proposal, but I didn’t want to take the risk. I could save him before he even approached them.

I just needed the object. And I knew where to find it.

As I strode back toward the village, new energy flowing through me, I made my plans. Dark was already falling, but I would wait for full black. Then I would force my way through that door and take the object that could save an entire kingdom. These people would thank me one day, when they had been forced away from this noxious place.

Once I had it, we would run for it, straight back down the mountain. The villagers would undoubtedly pursue us—they would have to. But by then it would be too late. I would send Oliver and Giselle ahead with the object, and I would stay behind, just out of range. I would protect us with an inferno impossible to penetrate no matter how well these people knew their mountain. And somehow, with me as the buffer between us, all of us would make it down the mountain. Once we were back in the palace with the object, we would have the royal guard to protect us from the incensed villagers and their treasonous ideas.

I was fired up, ready to act now, but I made myself wait. Full dark still hadn’t fallen. And a loud grumble from my belly reminded me I hadn’t eaten yet, so I reluctantly returned to the house. Calmly sitting down to eat felt too much like being locked back up in Lord Treestone’s castle, but I needed every advantage I could get. Food would only strengthen me.

When I appeared, Oliver quickly looked away, his eyes guarded, his fists tightening briefly. I carefully focused on Giselle instead who looked curiously between us. Eventually she shook her head and turned back to the food.

“I’m not going to ask,” she muttered as she served it into bowls.

I appreciated her forbearance.

Although I forced myself to sit and eat, Oliver didn’t seem to have the same capacity. Whether it was his coming sacrifice, or our encounter in the trees, something tormented him enough that he could sit still only for a minute. After thrusting himself back from the table and striding to the fire for the third time, he was met with a glare from Giselle.

“Sorry,” he said, sounding guilty. “I’ll go.” And before either of us could protest, he had disappeared out the door.

“What did you do to him?” she asked, her voice halfway between exasperated and amused.

A flush rose up my neck, and I couldn’t answer her in kind.

“Well!” she said after a moment of silence.

I pushed my bowl away and leaned across the table. “I don’t know when he’ll be back, which means you have to get ready for all of us.”

“What?” Giselle seemed confused by the sudden change of topic, her blue eyes uneasy at the light in mine.

“We’re getting out of here—tonight. So you need to be dressed and packed for a hasty exit.” I gave her a significant look, and she frowned.

“What exactly are the two of you planning?”

“I’m going to save us before your brother does something stupid. And I’m not waiting any longer.” I stood to my feet and pulled on my jacket. “So just be ready.”

Giselle stood and joined me, although she made no move to pack our bags or dress herself.

“Why do I get the distinct impression that you’re the one about to do something stupid?” She eyed me warily. “What are you planning to do, Celine?”

“I’m stealing the object. And then we’re going to make a run for it.”

Her eyes grew wide. “What?!? We’ve never even seen the object. Are you mad?”

I laughed, but the slightly wild sound didn’t seem to reassure her. “Perhaps.”

She continued to glare at me, but her disapproval did nothing to erode my determination. “We know where the object is, that’s enough.”

“Yes, it’s in a forbidden hut. Remember? And you don’t have your powers anymore.”

I frowned at the mention of my fire. “I don’t need powers, Giselle. I survived without them for eighteen years. Even in the midst of an attempted coup and a rebellion.”

She didn’t look convinced.

“And, anyway, once we’ve got it, you can take it ahead. To free my powers.”

Giselle narrowed her eyes. “If we make it that far.” She gripped my arm. “This is crazy, Celine. At least wait until Oliver gets back. Let us all talk this over. What if you get in there and there’s more than one object inside? How will you know which one it is? And what if they catch you? You remember what the elder said about obeying their laws. Do we even know the penalty for disobeying them? Oliver and I won’t be able to protect you.”

I brushed her concerns aside along with her hand. “I’ll know. And I won’t get caught. You’ll see. Just be ready to run.”

Before she could stop me, I thrust open the door and pushed out into the night. Excitement filled me, tingling in every part of my body. She would see. And so would Oliver. So would anyone who had ever doubted me. I was Celine of Lanover, and I didn’t need a godmother’s gift to keep the people I loved safe.

I soon slowed my stride, however, remembering the need to stay out of sight. Thankfully my goal stood nowhere near the tavern or the baths, the two buildings that seemed to attract nighttime traffic. I slipped from shadow to shadow, staying away from lighted windows or the occasional villager making their way home. I should have waited longer, but I couldn’t risk Oliver returning and trying to restrain me.

When I reached the building, I realized I also should have checked Sterling’s house for tools of some sort. I tried the door, just in case, but of course it remained locked. So now I stood in the dark with empty hands, staring at a locked door.

My eyes traveled to my useless hands and then down to my feet. After a moment of consideration, I shrugged. It seemed I only had one choice.

Planting one foot firmly, I pulled the other up, glad to be wearing pants instead of skirts, and smashed my heel against the door, just below the latch. It didn’t move, but I thought I heard a faint splintering.

A grin stretched across my face as I drove my foot again and again against the same spot. For a moment I forgot everything else as I vented all my anger and frustration on the wooden panels. Finally, with a louder splinter and a crash, the latch gave way, and the door swung inward.

I stood for a moment, panting, satisfaction surging through me. But slowly it faded, a flaring pain in my ankle replacing the surge of energy. I shouldn’t have used my previously injured leg. And now an unwelcome unease accompanied the physical pain.

How much noise had that made? I glanced around, but no one emerged from the shadows to tackle me. I looked again at the broken door. There would be no hiding this. If I couldn’t identify the object, or if it wasn’t even here…

But I shook off the thought. Such doubts would do no good now. And why else would there be a windowless hut, forbidden to all? It would be here.

I stepped inside. My first thought was that I should have brought a lantern. Without windows, the hut remained in almost complete blackness. Something I should have foreseen.

But you didn’t stop to think, did you? said a voice in my mind that I squashed just as I had the earlier thoughts. I was here now.

I pushed the door as wide as it would go, letting in the faint gleam of moonlight. A small table stood close enough to catch some illumination, and I could just make out the outline of a candle. My groping fingers found the nearby tinder box and after much fumbling, I managed to light it. I was far from expert in the task, and I was still complaining to myself when I turned to survey the room.

Ice instantly washed over me. The inside of the hut was as simple as the outside, with the exception of the carved door I had just partially destroyed. But it was no display room. In fact, the inside looked exactly like the storage shed I had first imagined it to be.

Several wheelbarrows, one missing a wheel, leaned haphazardly against one another in one corner. And at least half of the single room was taken up with various pieces of broken furniture all piled on top of each other.

Godmothers were known for enchanting ordinary objects, but I had never known one to enchant a broken chair. And no one would store an essential magical object in such a place. Several of the mismatched piles looked like they might collapse at any point, crushing anything that happened to be beneath them.

An unpleasant tingling rushed down from my scalp to my toes and back up again. If it wasn’t kept here, where was it? And what had I done? This had all been for naught.

A drop of hot wax dripped onto my hand, and I yelped and jumped backward, only just managing to keep my grip on the candle. My gaze flew from the small flame to the wide-open door. I tried to remember what this building faced onto. Was it angled so that anyone would see the light, so out of place in this particular spot?

I needed to get out of here before someone discovered what I had done. I blew out the candle and let it fall to the floor. Running, I burst from the door, almost tripping down the few stairs in my haste.

As my eyes sought out a path in the unfamiliar darkness, they fell on the shape I most feared. A human shape. Not on the village side of the hut, but on the other side. Someone lurked on the very edges of the village, barely visible in the gloom of the night.

My feet took off running before my brain could catch up. I fled back toward Sterling’s house, not bothering to keep to the shadows because the sound I most dreaded had fallen on my ears. A shout from the shrouded figure. And then the pounding of multiple feet.

I should have run out of the valley entirely, but I was pointed the wrong way, my pursuers cutting me off from the narrow passage and escape. Without thought I continued on my current path. Only as I neared Sterling’s house, my breath now coming in sharp pants, did it occur to me that I couldn’t lead them here. I had to keep running. Find somewhere to hide until I could circle back and be free of this wretched place. Once I hit the snow line, none of them would be able to hurt me. Or so I hoped.

But even as I made the desperate plan, I neared the house, almost brushing against its wall, and the door flung open, blocking my forward momentum. Oliver leaned out, gazing beyond me, clearly looking for the source of the commotion. But it took less than a second for him to see me, my face no doubt blanched with fear.

It seemed to take even less time for him to take in the whole scene, understanding rushing across his face and fear filling his eyes. I tried to duck around the door to keep fleeing, but he grabbed my arm, pulling me inside and slamming the door behind us.

He still wore his boots and jacket, so he had either just returned or had been on his way out to find me. If only he had found me in time, a miserable voice inside whispered. If only he had stopped me.

But the fear in his eyes held no room for recriminations. Instead he scrabbled at the clasps of my jacket, pulling them apart while I stood there stupidly, trying to understand what was going on. As soon as they were undone, he ripped the garment from me, throwing it into a heap in front of the fire.

It hit the floor just as the door handle turned, and he thrust me back toward a chair, his hands rough and his eyes on the doorway. As I hit the seat hard, understanding rushed through me. I leaped back to my feet, but the damage had already been done.

Several men had pushed their way into the room, and the sight that confronted them was two girls sitting by the fire and one man, dressed for the outdoors, standing panting by the door.

“No!” I cried, even as three of them moved forward to grab Oliver’s arms. He didn’t resist, whether for our sake or simply because he was outnumbered, I didn’t know. But I could see several more men milling outside, talking in angry voices. We had no chance against them if it came to a fight. Not without my fire.

Someone else stepped inside just behind the men, and my brain finally caught up with me. The figure I had seen watching the hut was a familiar one. The same who now entered the house—Sterling.

His eyes traveled from Oliver, held securely between the villagers, and me. Relief rushed through me. He had been there. He had seen me. The truth would now be exposed.

But his eyes skated back over me, landing once again on Oliver. And the expression on his face was one of satisfaction.

“My apologies for bringing a lawbreaker into your community,” he said to Oliver’s captors.

I rushed forward, my mind scrambling to make sense of it all, and wrapped my hands around one of Oliver’s arms. The man on that side pushed me back, and Oliver turned on him, his eyes furious and his stance strong despite the restraining hands.

“Don’t touch her!”

“She’ll be safe enough,” said the elder who had warned us only that morning. “It’s not she who has broken our laws.” His eyes held no mercy.

I opened my mouth to correct him, if Sterling would not, but Giselle kicked me so hard in the shin that I nearly fell, already off balance. I wobbled against the younger girl, and only two of the men even spared a glance for the overwrought women as they hauled Oliver away.

I got a final glimpse of him, looking back at us, and the relief in his eyes made me crumple to the floor for the second time that day. He had not hesitated to sacrifice himself for me. And I—I had destroyed everything.

After several deep, shuddering breaths, I scrambled back to my feet.

“We…we should go after them.”

Giselle, her face white, and her hand shaking, glanced from me to the door. “Do you know where they’ll take him? Did you see a prison in your explorations?” She bit her lip and wrung her hands. “We might make things worse.”

I looked around, trying to make my mind work rather than circling endlessly back to Oliver’s final expression.

“Why did you stop me? You should have let me tell them the truth!”

“And have you both hauled off? We have a better chance of freeing him this way. Especially if they send him out of the valley.”

I wanted to storm off into the night. To demand to know where Oliver had been taken. To demand to see him. But I hesitated. What if Giselle was right? What if I made it worse? I didn’t know their customs or laws, I had been too busy in my useless quest for information on the object to ask. And we were only in this predicament because I had already rushed foolishly into something today…

“It was Sterling,” I whispered.

“What?” Giselle looked at me in confusion, clearly having the same difficulty in ordering her thoughts that I was having.

“He was out there in the night, watching the hut. I think he was waiting for one of us to try…” I took a deep breath. “I think the whole thing was a set up.”

“Did you…did you find it? Was it there?”

I bit my lip. “It was just a storage shed. Like it looked from the outside. But one that had been locked and forbidden. Why would anyone forbid access to a storage shed? Unless they wanted to lure someone into breaking the law.”

Giselle swallowed. “You mean Sterling wanted you to break the law?”

I shook my head. “Not me. You saw what just happened. Sterling knew I was the one to break into that shed, but he said nothing. It was Oliver he wanted. He must have thought he was the most likely to do something rash.” Tears filled my eyes. “He underestimated me. And then he got lucky that Oliver is too noble for his own good.”

Giselle gaped at me. “But what does Sterling want with Oliver?”

The two of us stared at each other wordlessly. Because neither of us had an answer to that question.