The clockmakers gift

r: The Mome

er eyes, she wasn't

ne and cold wind. She looked down. Her boots weren't soaked from city puddles, but dus

the edge of S

od like silent sentinels along the shore, their branches coated in frost. In the di

: two girls racin

the cold, her laughter wild and reckless. Her boots skidded as she spr

l-smaller, fa

na had given her for Christmas. Her black curls bounced a

to call out but remembered-she wasn't really

ould do w

eath turned to clouds. The snow shimmered

the

nd sudden. The

er self froze

il

neath Lila's feet spiderw

nd then her small frame d

liding as she dropped to her knees

trembled, phantom pai

e'd replayed over and over again in

hing was

aged, wearing a hunter's coat. He didn'

g his weight, and reached into the

head broke

e fingers grasping wildly. The

them, Lila was already back on

ble presence floating near the e

hrough chattering teeth

sobbing into her sister's co

" Lila whispered. "I

er. A neighbor. She remembered him now

an to blur, th

been the fall that took her sister. Lila had lived-after that day. It w

ena's

a

a fa

...

days than Elena had

that, the la