Nights of Fire & Ash

Chapter 4

Over the next few days, I found myself sticking to the same routine - wake up, bathe, eat breakfast, scour the library for any information about where I was, and finish the day with dinner and reading the Fae novels in my room. The fifth day I was there, my trip downstairs was changed as there were decorations covering the halls with intricately weaved garlands, white and red flowers, and golden pinecones all around. It looked as if someone sprinkled white snow across the floors as well. It dawned on me that the winter solstice had only been a week away when Makiel had kidnapped me, and now, I would be missing it.

As I slid into the dining hall, I gazed at the decorations that I couldn't take in all at once. Beautiful was too simple of a word to describe them. The room had been filled top to bottom as if we were secretly sitting in a winter wonderland this entire time. A large pine tree had been placed in the far corner of the room. It was covered in small candles that appeared to be almost floating on the branches. With white, green, and golden flowers covering the entirety of it, I didn't want to pull my eyes away from it. I had never in my life seen anything like it. At my home, we couldn't even afford real food during winter solstice.

"Good morning, Rae Rae," My eyes shot up to Heldius. His new nickname for me seemed to be sticking. "She sure is a beauty, isn't she? I found her myself on my last expedition towards the portal. I thought that she would be perfect for this year's Winter Solstice celebration."

"Well, I guess I can refer to it as something along the lines of that. We don't have things like this back home." I fidgeted with the sleeve of my gown. I still hadn't been able to convince Echa that I would be more comfortable in pants. She cited some bullshit about how "Ladies of the summer court only wear gowns, dresses, and skirts, Miss. It is a custom." It sounded like sexist bullshit to me, but I had yet to find anything else. Every time she said something like that, I literally wanted to throw up.

"You don't have holiday celebrations back in the human realm?" Makiel inquired. He had done his best to nudge his way into my days, but I was having none of it. I was going to make his world hell for taking me. I wasn't going peacefully.

"We have holidays and celebrations of some sorts, but it's not much. Anyways, my family was far too broke to indulge on any sort of holiday. If we could eat normally for a week, that was pretty much its own holiday." I hated talking to them about how poor my family was. They always gave me these pity smiles and nods like they understood what was going on. They didn't. Obviously, none of them knew what struggling really was.

"Oh right, sorry." Makiel dropped his head like he understood that this conversation was already over.

"Come over and enjoy some of the pre-holiday food. The servants have been working day and night to get ready for these next two days. They are going to be so much fun." Tatiana said from the far side of the table by Zathrian. "These next few days are going to be full of music, gifts, dancing, and parties. The food and wine are to die for, almost literally. Last Winter Solstice someone drank themselves until they fell into the pool, and we barely pulled him out." Tatiana's light laugh filtered out into the room.

"Okay, okay, I did not fall into the pool. From what I remember, someone pushed me and they were equally as drunk!" Zathrian poked her in the side. I loved their playfulness. Their relationship was easy and light.

"I can't wait until this year's cake. Last year was just the vanilla with that buttercream frosting, and I am thinking this year it should be like chocolate with maybe raspberry fillings. That would be delicious. Or, or, they could do some gingerbread cake with the light creamy frosting that they do. Maybe, they could even do something with cherries this year like they did for the Spring Equinox last year." Heldius rambled on and on.