~Thirteen years ago

A chill rattled the walls of the palace, whisking snow past the windows, frost creeping along the glass like icy fingers trying to shatter it.

However, hidden beneath the covers, unaffected by the storm, was a pair of elves.

"Scott stop moving you're whacking me with your wing—" The older of the two hissed, batting at the younger with one of his hands.

"Sorry!" Scott whispered back, tucking his white and grey dusted wings closer to his back. He nestled himself down against the sheets, cyan-colored bangs all tangled in his line of sight.

Both the boys flinched as the shutters of the bedroom window were rapped against the sides of the palace, sending a sharp clatter throughout the room.

"What was that?" The winged boy asked, his voice hushed, blue eyes widened in a sort of fear as he curled up further beneath the blankets.

"Just the wind." The older of the two replied, though he didn't quite sound so sure, glancing nervously towards where the smallest amount of light managed to peek through the seams of the blanket, coming from the moonlight in the window, ear twitching.

"Isn't that what they say in the stories, Xor?" Scott peeped, fright lacing the high-pitched tone to his voice. "Before something bad happens?"

Scott's brother gave him a look through the magenta locks that fell out of his braid. "Well you're not supposed to point that out—"

By Scott's reaction, that was clearly the wrong thing to say. "What do you mean?! What's going to happen now Xornoth?!" He had shot up, the top of his head causing the blankets to cascade over his shoulders and hide most of his face.

"Shhh!" Xornoth hissed again, lunging forward, and pressing his hands clumsily over Scott's mouth. "If Maddie hears us we're going to be in so much trouble—"

"Phuf I faunpphed—" Scott's voice was muffled beneath Xornoth's hands, and unable to pry them off, he resorted to the next best thing. He licked his brother's palm.

"ICK—" Xornoth yelped, wiping his hands off frantically on Scott's pajamas. "You're grossssss."

Scott wrinkled his nose, though hardly visible in the dark, batting spitefully at his brother's ear in response. "You deserved it—"

"Nuh uh!" He protested, glaring at Scott through the darkness.

Both boys froze at the sound of footsteps, muffled thuds echoing through the now silence as they fell quiet. Xornoth's glare pierced the dark when Scott's wings ruffled.

"Shut up!"

"I didn't even say anything!"

"If she catches us it's on you—"

"You're the one talking!"

"Shush!" 

The footsteps stopped just outside of the door, the slight creak of the wood and turn of the handle able to be heard even through the blankets obscuring the boys' sight. 

Scott yelped the slightest, shoving his brother's head down into the sheets, a small muffled noise of protest coming from Xornoth, just as he poked his head slowly out from beneath the covers. 

A flame flickered from the small crack within the doorway, illuminating a lavender-haired figure. The candle held in Maddie's hand was growing low, the wick barely hanging on and shriveling against the wax, bending under the nonexistent weight of the fire. 

Her eyes met Scott's, and an eyebrow raised practically into her hairline. "You're supposed to be asleep." She hissed, the flame flickering again and threatening to fade completely. 

Scott did not make the mistake of glancing towards his squirming brother beneath the blankets, as he had done so many times before, and instead kicked him to stop his moving. "I know," he pouted. "But the wind's too loud." 

"Did the wind also conjure itself into a voice to speak?" Maddie asked skeptically, her eyes glancing over the blankets covering most of Scott's body, and the other young elf. 

Scott froze. "Eh, what?" he replied blanky, just before another wave of wind rapped violently against the window, rattling the panes and knocking the thin film of snow from the windowsill. Both boys flinched, the hidden one's movements disguised by Scott's body jerking towards the window to stare out into the night. 

Maddie sighed, relieving some of her weight against the doorframe. "It'll be alright, Scott. The storm will pass." she said, her attention clearly having been drawn away from what had been the second writhing figure beneath Scott's covers. 

"Still loud." Scott said quietly. The look Maddie next sent him was one of soft pity, one she gave both twins often.

"I know, I'm sorry. I'd turn the wind off for you if I could." She said with a trace of a smile at her last few words. "But you're brave, you'll be okay. I have to go check on your brother and sister now, but you know my door's open if you need anything."

Scott smiled back, giving her a small nod at her offer. An offer not even his mother gave on nights like these, a room he went to instead of the queen's when nightmares plagued his dreams. Maddie was a different mother to them, disguised in servant's clothing. 

"Goodnight, Scott."

"Goodnight Maddie." 

And the door closed with a light click.

Xornoth immediately scrambled out from beneath the blankets, his hair frizzy and pajamas wrinkled even further than before. "I have to get back to my room—" he hissed under his breath, wearing panic in his expression. 

Scott's head snapped back to him, panic now flooding his own eyes. "Just— just teleport!" 

Xornoth looked around, humming vaguely under his breath as he tended to do when he was nervous. A little moment of hysteria turned to song. His eyes flicked this way and that. "Too fiddly, I'm not good enough at it yet." The young elf practically threw himself from the bed as another wave of wind blanketed with a swirl of snow and hail hit the side of the palace, causing him to stumble and nearly trip on the carpet beneath his feet. 

He scrambled up the wardrobe, using the decorated golden handles as footholds. Scott held his breath as the piece of furniture rocked under Xornoth's weight, but he made it to the top without it toppling. 

"Xor—" Scott started, but the boy continued to climb up the shelves lacing the powder blue walls. He braced his knees against the wood, nearly a dozen feet in the air now, braid tangled and disheveled. Xornoth pushed a painting of a landscape out of the way, of mountains with peaks puncturing the sky and capped with white and blue, to reveal a small hole in the wall, just barely big enough for the boy to fit through.

And he disappeared from sight, sliding the painting back into place as he went.

Scott was alone. Hail scattered the windowsill and the roof, pellets of crystal against the shingles and glass. The wind roared, attacking the walls mercilessly with its constant power and force. He cowered, unable to take his eyes off of the window, where the lights from the city below were obscured by the storm, where it simply faded off into darkness. 

Scott curled up against his headboard, pulling his blankets up to his chin like a safeguard, his wings tucked close. Because he was alone, and he hated being alone, and he wished his brother was back and at his side and making him laugh with his little tricks and the flames that danced effortlessly across his skin, or snuggled beneath the covers of Madeli's bed listening to the story after story that his mother's advisor had to tell. Safe. He wanted to be safe. And alone was not safe, alone was frightening and different and just like the dark that hid along the corners of his room, just like the darkness that followed the eyes of those who watched and whispered about his beloved brother and sister, it was unknown to him. 

The frost was no longer confined to just the outside blizzard. It crept along the headboard, glistening against the wood and crawling up the walls, spiraling like vines and overgrowth the more Scott thought, the more Scott felt, the more Scott feared. It glistened brighter with every heartbeat, it spread further, Scott's hands grew colder. His breath left in curls of white, his sheets dusted with a film of snow. The blizzard wasn't just outside anymore. It was inside.

Because Scott was alone. 

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***Just to note real quick, this book is in fact the SECOND installment to a series (the first book is called 'Who Let the Demon Out?', and should be just a little farther down in my list). I've had way too many people go straight to this one and have absolutely no idea what's going on cuz they didn't see the 'Book 2' bit in the title.***