Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

Author:Melissa Bashardoust
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flatiron Books

19

MINA

Mina stood in the chapel, surrounded by pieces of shattered glass. She hadn’t meant to lash out like that, but the fear and rage building up in her had demanded some kind of release, something to drown out the silence of her heart. Since Lynet knew the truth already, she had no reason to hold herself back anymore.

The chapel was dark and silent, but Mina could still hear the echoes from when the glass had shattered, could still see the horrified look on Lynet’s face, the look she might give to a frightening stranger. And perhaps she was a stranger—Mina had kept so much hidden from her over the years, whether for Lynet’s safety or for her own.

But she had known this would happen one day. The moment Mina had realized how much Lynet had grown—the same night when Mina had first seen a strand of gray in her own hair—she knew that this disillusionment had been inevitable. She knew that Lynet’s childish adoration couldn’t last forever, and that when she became old enough to see Mina—to see right to the heart of her—she would only ever be able to hate her. She should have been better prepared for this night.

Mina frowned. Felix was taking too long. He should have returned with Lynet by now. He’d caught more difficult prey than a frightened girl, even if she was skilled at hiding. Mina felt the same frustrated fear building up in her that she’d felt before shattering the window, but now there was no more glass to break.

I have to win back Lynet’s favor, Mina thought. When Felix brought her back, Mina would explain herself and try to be the stepmother Lynet had always known—

But even as the thought entered her mind, she knew it was impossible. It was too late. There would be no other chances, no other roles but the ones that had been set for them from the beginning—the bitter, aging queen and the sweet young princess poised to take everything from her.

She heard Felix arriving before she saw him—heard him walking at his normal pace, quick and clipped, and so she wasn’t even surprised when he appeared alone in the doorway.

“Where is she?” Mina said in a whisper.

He shook his head, the moonlight from the broken windows making his dark eyes glow with an eerie intensity. “I don’t know.”

Mina lifted her skirts and stepped around the broken glass to reach Felix, taking his face in her hands and searching for answers in those unreadable eyes. “Felix, what are you saying? You couldn’t find her?”

He tried to turn away, but she kept him in place as a broken, shameful look started to fill his eyes. “No,” he said, “I couldn’t find her.”

Mina released him and buried her face in her hands. If she went to Nicholas … “Keep looking,” she said, dropping her hands from her face. “Look in the trees, especially. I’ll check the king’s rooms. We have to find her.”

But Lynet wasn’t with her father. And

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