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and beautiful and in love.”
    Reba and Ella Mae’s aunts reminisced about the men they’d known in their youth all the way to Havenwood Mountain Park. As Dee’s car climbed higher and higher into the blue green hills, the sky began to darken, turning a smoky pewter.
    â€œThis is what I hate most about winter,” Dee said. “How early night comes. It’s not even five and I can see the moon already.”
    â€œAnd it’s so cold,” Ella Mae said. “I don’t remember it being this cold. Look at the lake. It’s covered with a shimmer of ice.”
    Below them, Lake Havenwood sparkled like a mirror. The town seemed frozen too. The shops and houses huddled together around its shore like children gathered around a campfire.
    Dee pulled the car into the lot near the entrance to the park’s hiking trails. “Where’s your friend?” she asked Ella Mae.
    â€œEira’s bully of a husband probably refused to let her meet me.”
    Sissy put her arms around Chewy, who gave her a lick on the cheek. “Poor woman. From what you told us, it sounded like she was keen on seeking sanctuary in our grove.”
    â€œWe’d best get goin’,” Reba said. “We’ve got lots to tell Adelaide.”
    At the mention of her mother’s name, Ella Mae was suddenly impatient to unburden herself, to share her worries and cares in the tranquility of the glade where her mother stood, graceful and alone.
    She hurried up the winding path, turning her face away from the sharp, probing wind. Because she had a head start on Reba and her aunts, Ella Mae was by herself when she rounded the last bend in the trail. To the right, a sea of treetops stretched on and on. Straight ahead was the rock wall that signaled the path’s end for anyone who wasn’t magical. But something else was there at the base of the boulder.
    Ella Mae hesitated just long enough to realize that the crumpled mass was a body. A woman’s body.
    â€œReba!” she shouted. Rushing forward, she dropped to her knees.
    The woman was lying in the fetal position with her long legs pulled up to her chest. She wore only a gray sweater, an ivory skirt and tights, and a pair of silver ballet flats. Her face was milk white, as were her lips and fingers. Her eyes were closed.
    â€œDo you know this girl?” Reba asked softly.
    There was a sheen of frost covering the young woman from her crown to the tip of her shoes and as the last rays of the setting sun shone on her face, the miniscule pieces of ice sparkled like tiny stars. She looked like a fairy-tale princess, cursed to sleep until a prince would come along and free her. But no man could wake this princess with a kiss. The girl who’d once danced the dance of the snowflakes had become one herself. White and cold and fleeting in its beauty.
    Ella Mae reached out, her fingertips hovering above the dead woman’s hand. Bowing her head, she whispered, “This is Eira. This is the woman who asked for our help, who needed sanctuary.” She turned to Reba, tears pooling in her eyes. “She was so close. So close.”

Chapter 4
    â€œYou’d best not touch her,” Reba said softly, putting a hand on Ella Mae’s shoulder. “Come away now.”
    Ella Mae allowed Reba to pull her a few steps back, but her eyes never left Eira’s lovely, ice-covered face. “Why didn’t she go into the grove?”
    Reba frowned. “I don’t know, hon. It doesn’t make sense to me either.”
    She turned to warn Verena, Dee, and Sissy about the dead woman, but it was too late. Sissy gave a cry of alarm and then quickly clamped both hands over her mouth. Her eyes were round as moons.
    Dee moved next to Ella Mae and slid a strong arm around her waist. “Is that your friend?”
    Ella Mae nodded, too upset to speak.
    â€œShe doesn’t even have a coat!” Verena shouted angrily. “And she’s two