I FOUND THE WOLF CURLED up and sleeping soundly on one of the garden steps, the grass pressed down beneath him and a few bright flower petals clinging to his white fur. Bees buzzed in the blossoms behind him, roses and asters and twists of orange honeysuckle. The air smelled sweet.
I almost hated to wake him. “Wolf?”
He opened one amber eye. “Do you need assistance with the house?” He’d left me on my own more often than not, lately.
I shook my head. “Not exactly. I found a room I’ve never seen before—I want to show it to you.”
He got slowly to his feet, like he ached all the way down to his bones, then stretched, yawned. “Lead the way.”
I turned from the garden, jittery with anticipation. I hoped the house remembered my instructions. “House,” I said as we stepped inside, “bring us to the new room.” The air trembled around us and I thought I heard a far-off breath of laughter—the house was amused.
I climbed a stair made of bare dark wood, the wolf’s nails clicking behind me. Down a hall of whispering shadows and around a corner, then up another stair, this one made of snow, to a red-and-gold door I’d asked the house to invent for me.
The wolf grunted and I glanced down at him. “Wolf?”
“You are right, Echo. This is a new room. I thought I had seen them all.”
I ignored a twinge of guilt and opened the door. There was no disguising the library now that we were inside, but I rushed to the nearest book-mirror anyway, my fingers wound tight in the wolf’s scruff.
He realized what I was about, and tried to jerk away from me, growling, but he wasn’t fast enough.
My hand was already brushing the surface of the glass.
Magic rushed through me.
I stood suddenly in an autumn meadow, the golden grass brittle and tall, seeds sticking to my sleeves. An ominous cloud loomed dark overhead, and the wind was sharp as needles.
I took a breath, turned.
The wolf stood there, unchanged. His back leg was crooked and scarred. There were bits of dried blood in his fur from his latest visit to the bauble room.
I reached inquisitive fingers to the left side of my face, wondering if that particular book-mirror didn’t work like the others. But my skin was as smooth as the day I was born.
I had changed.
The wolf had not.
We stared at each other, the wind whipping wild between us. His sorrow was so heavy I could nearly taste it.
He didn’t say anything, just looked at me for a long, long moment, his amber eyes piercing down to the darkest parts of me.
And then he turned, and vanished, and I was alone.
I sank to my knees in the grass, guilt squeezing so sharp I could hardly breathe. I had been so sure he would be different in the books, so certain his true self would be revealed.
Instead, I felt like I had betrayed him.
Hoofbeats thudded across the ground, and I lifted my head to see a rider hurtling fast toward me. As the rider drew near, I recognized Mokosh, her silver hair and voluminous split riding skirt flapping madly in all that wind.
“Echo!” she cried, pulling up in a cloud of dust and grass. “I’m so glad I found you—why do you look so miserable? There’s a princess who’s about to fight an evil sorceress using only the weather, and it’s sure to be loads of fun. Coming?” She leaned down in her saddle and offered me her hand.
I couldn’t face the wolf after what I’d done. Not yet.
So I took Mokosh’s hand, and let her sweep me away on an adventure. But the whole time, I couldn’t stop thinking about the look in the wolf’s eyes. The look that said he was ashamed of me.
I DIDN’T SEE THE WOLF again until I climbed into bed that night and was about to turn down the lamp. The door creaked open and he padded in, but he didn’t look at me. There was more blood in his fur than I’d ever seen before. Guilt and hurt writhed inside of me, but I blew out the lamp without saying a word. Coward, I told myself.
The bed sagged as the wolf climbed up; the linens rustled. I stared into darkness and listened to the beat of my heart.
Finally I said, “I shouldn’t have tricked you like that. I shouldn’t have pulled you into the book-mirror against your will. I’m sorry.”
His breathing sounded quick and shallow from the other side of the bed. “The fault is mine, Lady Echo.”
I listened to the darkness, felt the immensity of the divide between us, though we were separated by mere inches. “Why won’t you let me help you?”
“Because no one can. Stop trying. Stop pretending you care about what happens to me. Stop behaving as if we are friends.”
His words stung like wasps. “Then what are we?”
“I am the demon who tricked you,” he spat. “You are my prisoner.”
I gnawed on my lip to keep from crying. Silence swallowed me whole.
The minutes stretched on. Tears dampened my pillow. “You are my friend, you know. No matter what you say. You’ve been watching over me my whole life. I trust you.”
The wolf made a sound halfway between a sob and a snarl. “My lady, you should not.”
“But I do.”
The darkness pressed in and in. We didn’t say anything more.
Somehow, I slept.
Deep in the night I woke to deep, muffled sobs that made the whole bed shake.
I wondered how a wolf could cry like that, and sound so very human as he did so.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
AFTER HALF A DOZEN LESSONS, MOKOSH informed me that my dancing was so much improved, we had better put it to good use and attend a ball. “Meet me in The Masque of Adella!” she said merrily as her book-mirror home wavered into existence. “Tomorrow afternoon! Bring something fancy to wear—I hear there will be princes in attendance!” And then she stepped through her mirror and vanished.
I told myself I hadn’t firmly decided whether or not I would join her, and yet, the next afternoon, I went directly to the library and asked the house to provide me with a selection of gowns. Three giant wardrobes appeared in a semicircle around me, filled to the brim with rustling silks and satins, sequins and jewels and embroidery. I looked through all of them, running my hands along the delicate fabrics, pulling out the occasional gown to get a better view of it in the light.
I hadn’t seen the wolf since I’d forced him into the book-mirror more than a week ago—he hadn’t come to give me my lesson, or appeared in the dining room. Every night he climbed into bed after I’d blown out the lamp, and every morning when I woke he was gone again. I had been tending the house on my own, wracked with guilt.
One of the gowns made my breath catch, and I slipped it off the hanger. It was pale gold and embroidered with metal thread, and had a lower-cut neckline than I was used to. The sleeves looked like puffs of confectioner’s cream. It whispered tantalizingly against my arms.
I turned to the book-mirror, touched the glass.
I stepped directly into Lady Adella’s dressing room, where Mokosh sat waiting for me on a red velvet chaise longue.
“Echo!” She leapt up and spun me about in a tight hug, then pulled away to examine the gold dress I’d brought. “Oh, it’s stunning. Just the thing. You’ll outshine Adella herself tonight!” She glanced sideways at the small army of Adella’s frowning maids, and stifled a giggle behind her hand.