Full Circle

“These books don’t yield their damned secrets, do they?” Lussi sighs, in an ice blue suit with gold embroidery and ruffled white undershirt. I am in a ribbon-dotted tiered cherry blossom pink dress with crinoline like a princess’ wedding cake. I wobble in my white high heels as I carry a stack of books – we had to dress up for Matron Lucifuge to grant us access to her library, not in “roguish hunting gear, but outfits befitting a King and Queen.”

Lussi steadies me, smiling softly, then lifts me and the books into a seat by the bay window that looks out onto the ice gardens and Seething Sea. The waters foam, waves crashing into salty spray against seaweed spires as the Midnight Sun lights the library with pristine fire through the frosted pane.

“This could give us an advantage, Dia,” he murmurs as he pushes my seat over, leaning over me on his huldra legs, tail wrapping around my ankle.

I sigh remorsefully, an