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the dirt ground we stepped on.
I ignored the sleek black beast with red eyes in favor of the red leaves being
crushed under their weight of their hooves. It felt wrong for them to callously
cause pain to the little guys as if their pain was my own.
    Apparently, my disregard of the
woman in voluminous red was a mistake. A shrill voice erupted from her mouth
immediately snapping my attention to her face.
    "What a wonderful day for
guest." Her smile was disingenuous as it didn't reach past her cheekbones.
Her dark eyes spoke of more insidious things. I glanced down to the bouquet of
red roses that were draped around her as if they were a couture dress. All the color
surrounding her made it abundantly clear she wasn’t the Lady in White I sought.
    Flynn and I took a step back. We
weren't scared as much as we had no idea of the enemy that was standing before
us. The women with a mop of carrot colored curls atop her head took a
proprietary step forward. She loomed over us and would have blotted out the sun
if there had been one in the azure sky.
     My neck craned back to take in
the woman or fairy that stood before me. Her eyes swirled like golden fire lit
them from inside.
    "You absolutely must join me
for dinner."
    I found my footing matching
Flynn's as we took another step in the opposite direction.
    A cartoonish smile curved her
mouth. In a deeper and sincere voice, she said with forced sincerity, "You
have nothing to fear."
    Intuition said otherwise. I was
groping for words when I was saved by the now familiar sound of horses
approaching from our flank. I turned to look behind me while Flynn kept his
eyes forward.
    A white carriage with light blue
and gold leaf design inspired by the same fairytale as the other one carried a
formidable woman at the reigns. She could only be described as an ice queen.
She came to a stop with tinkles from what had to be the blue crystals under all
their combined weight. She released the reigns and sprang to the ground.
Dressed in a white gown made from delicate feathers, it poured all the way down
her even her feet. Instantly, I guessed she was the woman we were looking for.
    "Tatiana," The ice
queen crooned. Her sapphire eyes glittered while she licked lips that were the
faintly pink. And that was the only color anywhere on her. Her strapless dress
dragged on the dirt floor as she moved perilously closer. Straight hair as
white as freshly fallen snow covered milky skin that was ghostly pale and vampire
like.
    "Madeline," the fiery
woman said no longer hiding her disgust.
    My head flipped between them
wondering who would win in a battle.
    Tatiana continued not aware of my
inner musings. "These are my guest under the rules of Fairy. Summer
controls the lands and will do so for yet some time."
    Madeline put a finger to her
lips. A sharp nail tipped in ivory like claws edged the bottom of her nose.
"Ah yes, dear sister. But it wasn't I that called me forth. I wouldn't
have interfered if my lands hadn't been summoned to the forbidden desert."
    Tatiana turned her deadly stare
on us. I swallowed wondering how to handle this situation. "Is this true?
Did you seek out the lands of Winter?"
    How to answer? I considered
putting a finger to my lips in thought. However, I didn't think Madeline would
take kindly to the idea of being mocked.
    "It is true. We did come to
visit the Winter land." I was extremely proud that my voice didn’t shake.
    Icy hands landed on both our
shoulders freezing us for a second in place. A tug forced us to step backward
towards the hum of the crystals. I wasn't sure how I knew the faint sound was
coming from them other than it was a new one since we woke up to the change in
our scenery.
    Tatiana didn’t give up. She
lunged forward, but Madeline had us on the blue crystals and out of reach in
the nick of time. Unfortunately, we were out of the feral grip of the Summer
Queen, but we weren’t exactly safe where we stood either. I glanced down to see
blood leak out from a cut just