Page 2 of The Midwinter Mirror
I want to scream that I haven’t done anything wrong. But the words won’t come out, and I stand mute, without the breath to defend myself as they walk away.
I stare after them until Tansy disappears.
Snow crunches behind me, and I know who it is before I turn. Holly, almost as tall as me, with her silver hair in a braid over her shoulder. Pale eyes, red from crying.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” She reaches out a hand, and I step back.
I can’t do this. She’ll break me. And I need the strength to walk out of this shithole.
She looks at me like she’s bracing for an impact she can’t see. She opens her mouth, closes it, swallows.
“Say it,” I growl.
She shakes her head once, hard. “I didn’t see anything.”
Same words she gave the police. It has to be a lie. Except why? Maybe she was so traumatized by what she witnessed that she blocked it from her mind. But she didn’t seem traumatized.
Holly’s my best friend, has been since we were both eight years old. I knew one day we’d be more. It was inevitable. And I can’t hate her now, however much I want to.
But she found us. Me unconscious, Mum…I swallow. A white drift. A dark shape. Blood in the snow. Holly had to have seen something that would explain what happened.
“Please stay,” she whispers. “Until after Christmas, at least. My father says you can live at our house. You don’t need to go. This is your home.”
Part of me wishes it were that easy. I could live at the manor with Holly and her family. See Tansy.
Then something thin and high carries on the wind—the tinkle of distant bells. The road to Silvergate lies white as bone. For a heartbeat, the hairs on my neck lift.
“You want to rescue me, princess?” I say. “I get it. You want to save me from harm.” She always did. Whatever reason she had for lying that day, it wasn’t to hurt me. I know that. It doesn’t make things any better, though. “But you can’t save me from this. I have to go.”
The last light dims from her eyes. She nods once, like she hates herself for it. “Zayne—”
“Don’t.” If she apologizes, if she just tells me why she lied about what she saw at Silvergate, then I’ll stay.
And if I stay, there’s a good chance I’ll turn into everything they’re afraid I am.
“Goodbye, Holly,” I say, and turn to walk away.
This place is cursed.
Maybe I can’t outrun it.
But I have to try.
Chapter 1
Christmas is Coming…
Holly
Five years later
Something jolts me awake.
The cold hits me first. Not the usual morning chill, but a creeping kind of cold that slithers under the door, slides beneath the covers, and coils around my ankles like it owns the place.
My dad would say I’ve gone soft—living in the big city. He’s probably right.
The duvet’s a tangled mess. I’ve been dreaming again—dreams I never remember. Probably for the best.
