Snow
The sharp intake of breath from behind her made Snow snap closed the book she was reading. She turned toward the door, the fire crackling merrily behind her.
"Any luck?" she asked.
Hunter held up a freshly-killed bird. "You?"
She shrugged. "There's a lot to go through."
He nodded once. "Looks like you found the shower," he noted.
Snow was suddenly acutely aware of Hunter's eyes lingering on her. The shower had been a much needed one. After months of hiding in the woods, she'd looked like she was becoming one with the trees. Once she'd caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she understood why people in Zomer City had looked at her so strangely. Not like the way Hunter was looking at her now. With unabashed appreciation sparkling in his eyes.
"Robbie can probably help you with that," she choked out, inclining her head to the bird.
Hunter still looked at her, dumbfounded for a moment before he shook his head. "No, that's alright. I can clean it myself. It's nice out."
And before she could say anything else, he'd left the cabin again.
Something about him seemed... different somehow. He seemed less carefree. More scrutinizing.
Snow shifted uncomfortably on the rug in front of the fire, opening her mother's diary again. But try as she might to read it, the words swam in front of her eyes, blurring together until they were indecipherable.
"Robbie?" she called to the android.
"Yes, Princess?"
The smell of roasting meat mingled with the smoke in the air and she figured Hunter must have decided to cook the bird outside, rather than in the kitchen. Another odd thing for a merchant.
"Can I ask a favor of you?"
"Anything, Princess," the android replied.
Snow took a deep breath, feeling guilty for giving in to her apprehensions, but knowing that she'd never be able to rest otherwise.
"While I'm sleeping tonight, keep an eye on Hunter. I know I said that he's okay, but... Just in case."
The robot's eyes glowed brighter with understanding. "Protecting the Princess is my prime directive," he said.
Snow gave him a curt nod, something uneasy pulling at her stomach. "Thank you."
"Dinner's served," Hunter said, kicking the door open with more force than necessary — Snow had asked Robbie to oil the hinges after she'd tended to his own joints.
They ate dinner in silence, Snow still trying to get a read on Hunter, Hunter still as guarded as the Queen's palace. With a full belly, she could hardly keep her eyes open. She didn’t sleep well and often had trouble managing it at all, but the past few months had been brutal and for the first time she felt almost safe. As she drifted off to sleep in the room that had once belonged to her mother, she was grateful that she'd asked Robbie to keep sentinel.
Nearly a week passed in the same fashion. Snow would get up and start reading through her mother's diaries, hoping for any kind of clue. Maybe someone had visited the cottage after her death and left something for Snow? It seemed plausible enough, but she couldn't seem to find it.
Hunter spent a lot of his time in the forest, hunting for their meals and cutting wood for the fireplace in the baking blue starlight.
The days started to blur together and they kept conversation to a minimum. Despite that, Snow got the impression that Hunter was agitated, though she couldn't say why. Maybe it was just the lack of progress. The words they exchanged grew fewer and further apart and she began to wonder when he would decide to abandon her altogether.
She wouldn't blame him, of course. She'd started to lose hope herself, and as she turned the last page on the last diary, her heart heavy with emotion, she sighed. The familiar prick of unshed tears pressed against her sinuses, but even though Hunter was outside, she wouldn't set them free.
When he returned from chopping wood that afternoon, she was still in the same position. Frozen with the realization that this had all been a dead end. And now the Queen had a week's head start on preparing her defenses.
"Well?" he asked, seeing the pile of diaries next to her spot on the floor.
She only shook her head.
Hunter cursed and slammed his fist into the door, startling Snow and alarming Robbie, whose eyes flashed red.
"Step away from the Princess," he said.
"Oh, shove it. I'm not going to hurt her. I'm just frustrated," Hunter said.
Snow clutched her hands together in her lap, staring down at them. She couldn't help but feel like this was all her fault. Like she'd led them down the wrong path and maybe ruined everything. She felt foolish. Stupid and dense. She knew the answers were out there somewhere, she just wasn't clever enough to find them.
"What is the source of your frustration?" Robbie asked, his eyes reverting to the brilliant blue that mimicked the star in the sky.
"Nothing you can help with," Hunter grumbled.
Snow's brow furrowed and she stood up to better address him. "Now, that's not very fair. You don't know what Robbie's capabilities are. He might be able to tell us something."
"Yeah, and I might be able to take down the Queen with my pinkie finger," Hunter scoffed. "Sorry Princess, but you're not going to find anything here. It's a dead end."
"Have any better ideas?" she challenged.
"Maybe."
"Let's hear it then."
Hunter looked at her for a long moment, something just on the tip of his tongue, fire blazing in the molten gold of his eyes. But instead of answering her, he shook his head. "I'm going to find dinner," he grumbled, leaving without another word.
Snow growled and kicked over a stack of firewood as he fled.
"I apologize for my lack of assistance, Princess," Robbie said.
Snow sighed and hung her head. "It's not your fault, Robbie. We were just hoping to find something here."
"What sort of something?" the android asked.
She shrugged, throwing up her hands, loosening her carefully-held control in the heat of the moment. "It would probably help if I knew that." She huffed out a hopeless laugh. "I don't know what I expected, I guess. I hoped that someone would leave something for me. A secret or something."
"Have you checked the basement?" Robbie asked.
Snow's gaze snapped up to him. "What basement? Can you take me there?"
Robbie’s neck creaked as he shook his head. "I cannot go there."
"Why not? Where is it?"
He shuffled out of the room without answering her, heading down the hallway to the bedroom she'd slept in — or at least tried to sleep in — for the last week. She'd spent so much time in that room, it was hard for her to imagine she could have missed something.
But sure enough, Robbie opened the closet door, pushed aside the clothes, and slid the back wall away to reveal a door.
"The basement," he said. "I cannot go there."
Snow frowned, crowding around him in the tiny space to get a better look at the door. "How do I...?"
Robbie took her wrist gently and lifted her hand, pressing her palm flat against the face of the door. The spot under her hand warmed and tingled before she heard a dull click and it hissed open.
Snow pushed the door open a bit more, the dim light that made its way through the closet just enough to see a spiral staircase disappearing into blackness. She looked back at Robbie, his huge frame hunched in the narrow closet.
"I cannot go there," he repeated.
Snow nodded. "Okay, just wait in the bedroom," she said, fumbling for a light switch she couldn't find. Once she stepped through the door, a soft glow followed her, tiny spotlights by her feet illuminating every step downward.
Her skin prickled and the air grew cold as she descended. Snow didn't know what to expect, but she couldn't quash the hope that this was the break they'd been waiting for. That she'd been waiting for. She still wasn't sure Hunter was going to stick around much longer. She wasn't sure she wanted him to.
At the base of the stairs, another light clicked on and Snow was faced with a console of monitors, like some sort of security room. She trailed her fingers over the dusty dormant surfaces and they all came alive under her fingers.
Lights shone through the glass monitors, but they didn't display anything. She'd expected there to be views of the outside of the cottage. Some kind of monitoring system against intruders and enemies. But instead, every screen remained perfectly blank, waiting on her input.
She tried typing commands into the keyboard. She even tried asking it out loud to do something, but none of those methods produced results.
This had to be what she was looking for though, right? This had to be something.
And Snow resolved to stay put until she figured it out. No matter how long that took.