“Tomorrow then. As soon as possible. Please.”
Perhaps softened by her concern, or her pale, pinched face, the King agreed, at Azalea’s insistence, to take it first thing in the morning. He helped them clean up the broken glass, lecturing all the while to the younger ones about how they would have to mend their own stockings to pay for such an expensive repair, and at the same time taking care that none of them stepped near the glass. Azalea swept up the pieces, deep in her own broken, troubled thoughts.
The knock sounded again that night.
Azalea was leaning against the mantel, feeling ill, while Ivy and Kale pestered her to tie their slippers, when the tentative, polite knock came. Goldenrod opened the door and, once again, showed the girls. No one was there. Azalea’s eyes narrowed as the trembly feeling of something awry flickered underneath her skin.
“I don’t like this,” said Hollyhock. “It gives me the shivershakes.”
Azalea went out into the hall, looking up and down an empty corridor. The odd sensation stayed with her. She swallowed a panicky feeling. Was Keeper growing stronger? Could he conjure magic outside of the pavilion now? Was it from the sword’s fall earlier?
“I think you should all stay here tonight,” said Azalea. “This feels too odd. Let’s stay here. We already danced today, anyway.”
Everyone protested loudly at this. Gritting her teeth, Azalea clenched the lamp in her hand as they descended into the silver forest. Each silver-encrusted step she took made the feeling increase, and dread filled her at the thought of seeing Keeper again. It did not help that the girls were jumpy. Jessamine clung to Azalea’s skirts and whispered in a crystalline voice, “Someone’s here. I think someone is here!”
“Jess, will you shut up!” Bramble seethed, clutching Lily with shaking hands.
Hollyhock, at the end of the line, gave a shrill yelp.
“Someone stepped on my shawl!” she cried.
She dove into the center of girls, leaving the shawl strewn across the silver path. It was Clover’s and much too large for Hollyhock, who had been dragging it, leaving a trail of silver sparkles. Azalea pushed her way to the back.
“Nonsense,” she said, holding up a trembling lamp. The silver leaves glittered. “I’ll bet you just caught it on something. These branches, see?”
Azalea knelt on the path and brushed pine needles from the knit shawl. Shaking it and sending a puff of silver dust from it, she folded it, stood quickly—
And hit her head against something hard and solid.
“Ow!” she stammered.
“Oh, forgi—”
The man’s voice cut abruptly. Azalea blanched at the empty mist. No one was there! Behind her, the girls’ eyes grew as wide as tea saucers.
“It’s a ghost!” squeaked Flora.
The girls screamed. They clutched their skirts in both hands and kick footed it to the bridge.
Azalea was faster. She rounded them off at the arc of the bridge, grasping the handrail and blocking them.
“Go back,” she said. “Don’t you see? Keeper’s trying to scare us. I’ve had enough. We need to go back. Now.”
The girls stared at her, both frightened and sad. Jessamine’s bright blue eyes, Hollyhock’s muddy green, Eve’s dark blue, all of them blinking.
“But,” said Ivy, “we only have tomorrow left.”
“We never should have come here in the first place. It was stupid.”
“Calm down, Az,” said Bramble, shifting Lily in her arms. “We don’t like Keeper either, but why stop dancing? You don’t have to be a bully about it.”
Azalea’s fingers gripped the cold, sleek railings.
“Is there a problem?”
Keeper’s smooth voice sounded behind her. He leaned against the arched doorway, arms crossed, cloak dripping over his shoulders. He looked roguishly amused.
“’Zalea says we have to go home,” said Hollyhock.
“And she’s absolutely right,” said Keeper, straightening, cutting a fine, hard figure against the silver-white dance floor. “I hardly have enough time as it is, getting everything ready for the ball tomorrow night.”
The girls’ mouths formed perfect Os.
“A…real ball?” said Hollyhock.
“We’re not of age,” said Ivy.
“Ah! But you are invited to this ball. As princesses, it is your right. And I, your host.”