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Kindle Notes & Highlights
the lazy clouds sliding through a twilit canvas of mauve and cornflower.
my nostrils inhaling the staleness of horse and something bizarre—overripe and metallic, like plums laced with poison.
It’s a border within a border, unfurling into an extension of this realm, the hub of Faerie materializing. The colors are more vivid here, denser than globs of paint yet sparkling like dyed glass bottles set in the sun. The browns are chimerical, the greens as saturated as parrot wings, and the blues swirling about in a cast of tints and shades that rival mermaid scales—or so I’d imagine.
For your trespass, be our sacrifice—to surrender, to serve, and to satisfy. Under the vicious stars, three sisters must play three games. Mutinous Lark, your task is painfully simple. Don’t look down. Watch your step. Fear the wind. Follow the wind. Lose your path. Find your way. Welcome to The Solitary Mountain.
A set of rules follows those cryptic tidings. Rule one: Each sister will enter one of the Solitary landscapes. Rule two: My sisters and I can’t reveal our games to each other. Rule three: All of us win—or none of us win.
How many are watching me? How many are waiting to pounce?
Footfalls multiply and skulk behind me. Wicked laughter spider crawls up my back.
“And what do you like, pet?” The question rides a coltish tail of wind that sneaks beneath my skirt and encircles my thighs.
Yet unexpectedly and inexplicably, the hurt becomes mournful. An unbidden wistfulness stings my throat and extinguishes the heat. For the life of me, I can’t justify that. Cerulean’s finger perches beneath my chin and levels my gaze with his. “What is this expression you wear?” he asks. “I don’t understand it.” For once, he’s serious. I’d go so far as to say he’s being genuine, his gaze jumping all over my face, unspoken questions stacking like bricks. Whatever his reaction, it straddles the line between fascinated and troubled.
