Ziva crossed the room, her gown swishing around her feet with each step. "Continue." Her voice held authority and yet at the same time there was an undercurrent to it that was tender.
Harumi stepped through the doors before Faryn could bring words to her lips. Her stomach sunk and flipped until she felt like she'd throw up.
Harumi was as beautiful as spring itself, her black hair swept over one shoulder and was threaded with baby's breath. Her dress, made of an almost sheer pink fabric, had rose petals sewn into the fabric. Though plucked, they'd never wilt as long as Harumi willed them to live. Her face twisted as she looked upon Faryn, and the look she wore should have been enough to turn spring into winter.
Ziva, still making her way toward Faryn, didn't pay Harumi any heed.
"Please." Faryn's voice trembled. "I'm worried about my mother. I need to get to Ruhnerium."
Sweeping past Mother Nature, Spring the Beauty's hands were in fists. "Your mother has no one to fear but you."
Faryn tried to stand, but Cassian placed a hand on her shoulder, stepping in front of her.
"We require safe passage to Ruhnerium to clear our names."
Harumi crossed her arms, her fingers resting delicately against her skin. "Then turn yourselves into Winter."
Cassian rolled his shoulders. "Faryn would never receive a fair trial. Her cousin has already tried to kill her."
Ziva turned her focus back on Faryn. "Have you ever been to Ruhnerium?" Though she looked as if she couldn't have been more than thirty, Ziva was over a thousand years old.
"I haven't."
"Are you certain this is where you wish me to escort you? I can allow you passage almost anywhere"
"I have to check on my mother."
Nodding once, Ziva took a step back. "Very well. I will offer you my sanctuary to Ruhnerium."
Faryn bowed her head again. "Thank you."
Harumi drew close. "My husband and daughter will make the journey with you to ensure everyone makes it to Ruhnerium safely."
"They aren't even here," Cassiopeia said, her voice weary.
Harumi turned on her heel. "They will once I call them," she said before sweeping through the doors.
Isoke looked over her shoulder at them. "Jack will show up," she said, and her wings seemed to droop.
Faryn stood to her feet, her limbs feeling weak. Moroz and the Snow Maiden were already bad enough, but if her cousin joined them, she wouldn't make it to Ruhnerium in one piece even with Mother Nature's sanctuary.
"He's with Eros," Isoke said to Peter. "And I can guarantee Harumi will be calling her."
Peter rubbed his forehead. "Please tell me she at least won't bring any Cupid with her."
Isoke crossed her arms, the barest glimpse of amusement sparking in her eyes, in the tilt of her lips. "She doesn't need Cupid."
Peter ran a hand through his hair, scowling. "I dread the day she tries setting me up with one of you."
Their run in with the Cupid was still fresh in Faryn's mind. She didn't want to ever have to fear being shot with a cursed love arrow again.
Cassiopeia let her arms fall to her sides, the rose dangling between her fingers. "Eros isn't like that anymore."
Ziva nodded. "She's right, Peter. I haven't heard of Eros making anyone fall in love in more than a century."
Isoke straightened her wings. "I suppose this means we'll be needing to prepare for a large dinner tonight."
*****
Faryn spent the rest of the day until dinner locked in a bedroom under guard. While Mother Nature was honor bound to ensure that Faryn made it to her destination safely, it did not necessarily mean she had to make it there while still free. Though she and Cassian had been separated, she knew he must be locked up somewhere too. Was he underground? And if so, was he okay?
By the time two guards arrived to escort her to dinner, she'd been given a deep green dress, the skirt covered in blue silk flowers. She'd removed her hat. It didn't look right with the dress, and maybe she wanted her cousin to see the Morozko white in her hair. Maybe she wanted to remind him—and perhaps rub it in—that she was one of them.
Her hair hung freely in curls down her back and brushed against her bare shoulder blades. As she followed the guards, she held the front of the skirt in her hands. Thanks to Ziva, she'd been allowed to keep her dagger, which was strapped to her thigh. It was no longer her only defense. She had powers. Even if she didn't understand them, she had them. They came to her when she needed them on the train. She had to hope they would rise again if Jack attacked her.
Two servants pushed open a set of large green doors that led into the dining room. Streams of water ran down the walls, and flora filled the spaces in between. The oval-shaped table was situated in the middle of the room, and Faryn's heart stuttered at who was seated at it. Mother Nature sat at what was the head of the table, one of the two tips of the oval. Beside her was Spring the Beauty followed by her husband, Moroz—Father Frost himself. His brown hair had a strip of white in the front that hung over his gray eyes. He'd come all the way from the Frozen City in Russia for her, the girl he believed killed or held his friend prisoner.
Faryn fought not to ground her teeth. He needed a new friend anyway if he counted Nick as one.
Beside him was his daughter, the Snow Maiden, dressed in grays and purples.
Peter, Clíodhna, and Cassian were already seated, and beside Peter was Chrysanthos—the Green Man, and his husband Ries. Her cousin and Eros were not presesnt. Besides for the man seated between Cassiopeia and Isoke, she knew who everyone was.
Mother Nature stood, offering her a smile. "Please have a seat, Faryn."
Under the icy gazes of the Snow Maiden, Moroz, and Harumi, Faryn walked around the table. It felt as if their eyes were only on her hair. She took a seat between Cassian and Clíodhna, and Faryn bit her tongue before all the questions she had for Cassian could spill out. Was he okay? Where had he spent his day? Had it been underground? She'd only feel foolish if she asked them.
The seat across from Ziva was empty, as was the seat on the other side of Faryn.
On the other side of the Fata, Peter leaned forward to see Faryn. "What did you do to your hair?"
Faryn straightened. "Nothing." Now that he had seen it, she'd explain later in private.
Cassian raised a glass to his lips. "Your cousin may have a heart attack," he murmured.
Faryn's stomach churned. "Is he really on his way?"
He nodded once, and Faryn stared at the food already arranged on her plate. The strips of light-colored meat looked about as appetizing as gruel.
From the other side of the table, Cassiopeia offered her a smile and motioned to the man beside her. "Faryn, I'd like you to meet Kerr."
The name clicked in her mind. Kerr. King of the Kelpies—another type of horse Thorine. He wore a black blazer with no shirt underneath, showing off his umber-brown skin in a sharp V. The top of his abs peeked out over the edge of the table. A silver necklace hung around his neck.
He was one of the good members of the Spirit Court, but considering Faryn was a fugitive, her allies might very well be the dark side of the court.
Kerr merely nodded to her before cutting into his food. Cassiopeia's smile dropped.
Clíodhna nudged Faryn's knee. "If we're lucky, Eros will make Jack fall in love with someone here, and he'll be too distracted to try to kill you."
Whoever killed the one under sanctuary of Mother Nature faced her wrath. Jack might be the one Acurial who would chance it.
Reaching for her glass of water, her hand shook too much. Her nerves would be on full display if she grabbed the glass and sloshed water over her plate. She started to draw her hand back when her eyes fixed on her glass. Frost crawled over her glass and down it. It reached her plate, choking it, before it slid throughout the table like serpents unleashed from their den.
Heads turned toward Moroz who, rolling his eyes, reached for his wine glass, the frost instantly vanishing from the crystal, and said, "Show off."
The ice climbed up the green of the doors as if it were now vines.
Faryn gripped the table, waiting for an icicle to hurtle toward her throat. It could come from any direction.
Beside her, Clíodhna straightened, her eyes sweeping the room. Cassian angled himself in Faryn's direction, and she slid her hand down to her lap, going for her dagger—
The doors blew open with a burst of wintery air, thick with snow. Her cousin stood in the doorway beside a tall woman with long curly blonde hair and a golden halo resting upon her head.
Jack's gray eyes immediately latched onto Faryn's, and even across the room, thr violence in them was clear.
She wanted to stand, wanted to slide her dagger out of its sheath, but she forced herself to remain still. If she attacked first, the Acurials around her would only take Jack's side.
Something like shock passed over her cousin's face before quickly being covered being up by anger. He must have seen her hair.
The woman beside him, who must be Eros, placed a hand on his back. The touch drew his attention, and Eros shook her head. The frost and ice that were the farthest from him, subsided, as if they were a wave in the sea and he was their moon.
Jack strolled across the room, now the picture of grace and refinement, all traces of anger gone. Eros trailed him before branching off to take a seat at the end of the table opposite from Ziva.
Jack sunk slowly into the seat across from Faryn. "Cousin."
Faryn didn't know what to do. Could she feign civility toward him? Should she?
"I hear you're turning yourself in."
Frost still covered her utensils.
"I'm trying to find my mother."
"And I'm trying to find her husband."
Her fingers flexed over her dagger. "If I knew where he was, I would tell you."
A very composed servant filled her cousin's glass with red wine, and as Jack reached for it, he said, "Clora's fine."
"Have you seen her?"
He was silent.
At the end of the table, Ries, Chrysanthos, and Eros spoke amongst themselves. Did Eros know about her Cupids going rogue?
"Your hair didn't look like that when I last saw you."
Faryn met Jack's gray eyes. "I was wearing a hat." She kept her expression carefully blank.
"I've never seen your hair like that in any picture."
"I imagine that's because the scrapbook you keep of me has my face cut out of every single picture."
The frost thickened over her plate. "Do you think adding white to your hair makes you one of us?"
She dragged a strand of said hair between two of her fingers. "I think it's from all the stress I've been under."
Frost wound its way up her chair. Was he so pigheaded that he couldn't possibly imagine Faryn's hair had done this itself? Did he really think she was wanted to masquerade as a one of them?
She was a Morozko whether she wanted their blood or not. It was in her and unless Jack drove an icicle in her chest it wasn't going anywhere.
"Jack." Peter reached for his own glass of wine. "Play nice."
"I should have arrested you when I was in Nebraska."
Peter laughed. "I'm a member of this court. You don't have the authority."
Clíodhna eyed Jack, maybe a bit too appreciatively.
Beside him, Isoke rolled her eyes. "Please do us all a favor and eat your food, Jack."
Her cousin reached for his knife and fork, and Faryn tensed. He could chuck them at her neck in a heartbeat. "You're fine with her being here? Eating with you?"
"I frankly don't care," Isoke said. "And besides, anyone here that's honest knows Nick was always a bit of a dick."
"Thank you," the long-suffering words slipped out of Faryn's mouth. Jack's eyes felt like daggers.
"Do you have something you want to say, Faryn?" He dragged his knife through his meat.
"I'm not the only Acurial who has an issue with Nick, and you know that."
He sneered, ripping off the piece of meat with his fork. "What do you hope to gain by seeing your mother?"
"I'm not going to reveal every part of my evil plan."
Peter drained his glass. "What a lovely family reunion." He motioned to a server for a refill.
"Jack," Ziva called from the end of the table. "Do remember she is under my protection and try to behave like your friends are." She motioned to Moroz and the Snow Maiden who both stiffened. The larger than normal snowflakes in Snow Maiden's long black hair seemed to be melting. She was the only person in the room younger than Faryn and yet she had already done so much more with her life. While Faryn had quite literally grown up in school, the Snow Maiden was off fighting winter creatures that threatened both humans and Acurials. Badaliscs, kallikantzaroi, karakoncolos, and of course, yule cats, not only in Russia but in her father's homeland of Mongolia and her mother's Japan. And if that wasn't enough, she led a network of hunters to take care of these creatures across the rest of the world.
It made Faryn feel foolish for wanting to escape to the human world and blend in. She also didn't like the idea of being hunted by Snow Maiden and facing not only her power but the end of her blades. If Faryn didn't find her mother in Ruhnerium, she was going to have to make an escape while in Winter Court territory, and at that point she'd no longer be under Ziva's protection. The Snow Maiden could hunt her down like one of her kallikantzaroi—except for the killing her part. The Winter Court wanted her alive, she knew that much. They needed her to tell them where Nick was. Jack didn't seem to share the same beliefs or at least didn't believe Faryn needed to be able to move her limbs to be able to tell them what she did with Claus.
Where would she even go after Ruhnerium? Everything hinged on her mother being there. Safe and willing to stand up for her. She was still the Mrs. Claus. She held power. Wouldn't she be able to keep her only daughter out of prison?
Who would like to join this dinner party?