*Maeve*
Winter Forest, One and a Half Years Later
Troy came into our room like a battering ram, his shoulders and hair dusted with a thick layer of snow. He gave me a boyish grin as he shook himself off and began to unwind the scarf from his neck.
“What have you been up to?” I asked as I eyed him from the foot of the bed where I was pulling on a pair of thick socks over my wool pants.
It was another frigid day in Winter Forest. Outside our bedroom window, the stars were dense, the moon casting long icy shadows over the castle grounds below.
“I walked Luke to school,” he gruffed, hanging up his damp sweater near the fireplace.
I couldn’t help but arch my brows and chuckle to myself as I eyed Troy’s snow-coated pants and the damp spots around his knees and elbows.
He caught my gaze and rolled his eyes before continuing to undress. “He fought me the whole way.”
“It almost looks like he won,” I mused, bending down to fetch my warmest boots.