"I have a job proposal for you."

Cora knew it was a bad idea. It was more than that, it was an awful one. Possibly the worst decision of her life. Then why had she agreed to it?

She'd never been the kind of person that let themselves be persuaded easily, especially when the request was of dubious nature like that one.

But she hadn't been able to say no. There were just a few people in her life she could never disagree with, and it looked like Harry had quickly become one of them. Or more like, he'd always been.

Thinking about it, she'd always known he would've brought her to her demise, so really, she shouldn't have been that surprised by the events of that night. They were the result of a long sequence of circumstances that had started in the second she'd first given Harry a room, so precise and mathematical that there was no doubt his enchantress would've been able to predict it all just fine, if only she'd been asked.

She'd known it was a bad decision to give him her attention since the very first moment he'd stepped into her life with nothing but a blue feathered hat and a rose made of gold, but she'd liked to pretend it wasn't, for a little while. She'd thought it would be fun to indulge him a little bit, not realising that some people are just like quicksand: when you realise you got too close, it's already too late.

And so she'd followed him into his room with nothing on her mind like a moth rushes to the fire, too attracted by the light to realise it'll burn its wings.

She'd definitely been too naïve, and he'd taken advantage of it. He'd used her weaknesses to spark something between them, not caring when the blaze became too powerful to be stopped.

She'd followed him into his room and no bell had rung in her mind in alarm when he'd let the door close behind them, or when he'd started talking.

"I need you to do something for me, Cora."

"What is it?" she asked, curiously.

He still hadn't turned around and his back was to her, hiding the look on his face from her. "I need you to find an address for me."

She'd known it was a weird request in the second it'd first left his mouth. There was no excuse for her behaviour, because she'd known. She'd always known, and maybe, deep down, she'd also enjoyed it.

She'd liked to meet someone that seemed to understand her, for once. Someone that understood her feeling of never quite belonging somewhere, held between two worlds without truly being part of either. And in a way, he did.

Harry did understand her, because he was just like her. What she hadn't known, though, was that he'd also weaponised it, with the only difference that she hadn't been on the receiving end of his wrath.

It doesn't matter how familiar you are with fire, how many times you start it in a fireplace and wrongly believe you are its master, if you're too careless you'll get burnt just the same. But she hadn't been properly aware of it, which was why she'd found herself going along with his statement.

"What kind of address?"

Harry turned his head. Cora could see the moonlight hit his face, enhancing his side profile with a silvery line of light. "Someone's address."

She nodded. She could do that. "Whose address?"

"An old friend," he replied. "I'd do it myself, but you can understand how they wouldn't hand it out to me if I were the one asking. I'm a stranger, and I'm aware of my reputation in these lands."

Cora smiled. She would help him, especially if it was for a good cause such as seeing someone he used to know again. "What's the name?"

"Conner Everett."

She made a mental note of it, hoping she'd remember it when she was back in her room. "Okay."

"I understand a festival is taking place here tomorrow night?"

Her smile brightened at his question. "The Hazelnut Festival," she explained, "we celebrate the middle day of autumn. Have you never come?"

Harry didn't answer her question. "I'll need you to inquire about the address during the festival, if you don't mind. I'd prefer it if you went unnoticed by the majority."

Cora frowned, recognising that it was a weird thing to be asked, but didn't linger in her doubt long enough to realise that something wasn't right. "I can do that."

His lips curved up in a little smile, and he glanced into her eyes only then, an unreadable look in his. "Wonderful."

She gave him a little curtsy, more for show than anything else, and went out of the room, going back to hers while repeating the name in her head.

She should've known.

As she stood in front of Altair Hall with red flowers carefully braided into her blonde hair, she wondered why Harry had asked her to do it during the festival.

She sighed and wrapped her arms around her waist to warm herself up. Her choice of clothing that night hadn't been the brightest. She was wearing a white dress with an embroidered motif of flowers that matched her hairstyle, long enough to reach her ankles, with soft half-sleeves covering her shoulders.

She was also freezing, but it was tradition.

She shook her head and walked into the building, determined to do what she had to as quickly as possible so she'd be able to go back to the celebration. They were supposed to go down to Lake Lyn soon. She shut the large door behind herself, closing the sounds of the festival out, and stood for a few moments in front of the large fireplace in the room, warming herself up.

When the cold that had seeped down to her bones left, she made her way to the census office. Most people were at the festival, and the building was silent.

She reached the office and for an instant she hoped it'd be empty just like the rest of the mansion, but her hopes were shattered when, after knocking, she heard a weak, low voice coming from somewhere inside the large room.

"Is anyone here?" she asked for good measure, looking inside just in time to see an old man emerge from a heap of books.

Cora didn't know him personally but she knew his reputation, which was the one of a surly old man that didn't enjoy company and disliked social gatherings even more. It was no surprise that he was in there instead of out in town celebrating. He was older than anybody she'd ever met, as confirmed his long, snow-white beard and bald head, an almost spirited look in his icy eyes. She'd never seen a blue so light before, and she wondered if he could see her at all.

"I'm here," he muttered, surpassing the pile of books and scratching his beard as he walked towards her, coughing loudly. When he reached the desk next to the door he stood on a stool as to seem taller, looking at her with those absurd milky eyes of his. "What do you need?"

"An address, actually." Cora pulled out the piece of paper she'd written the name on. "It's a friend of a friend," she explained, handing it to him.

The old man took it in his shaky, callous fingers and mumbled something to himself before opening drawer after drawer behind the desk vigorously, only stopping when he found what he was looking for. He reached inside and pulled out a pair of glasses that seemed to be two dusty circles of glass held together by a spare piece of metal and a lot of willpower and slapped them on his nose.

"Conner Everett, you say?" He put the paper on the desk again. "I presume he's still alive?"

Cora pressed her lips together at the odd question. "I mean, I hope so?"

He nodded. "I'll check the alive ones, if he isn't there I'll look for his name in the dead ones." He coughed again and got off his stool. He shoved a candy in his mouth and walked to the other side of the room, scanning the books on the shelf, while sucking on the piece of sugar in his mouth.

"Do you need any help?" Cora asked into the room when he climbed a tall, shaky ladder, and he muttered something under his breath that sounded too much like a curse before jumping off with a large book in his hands. For a terrible instant she feared all his bones would crack on impact, but he shrunk back to his height as soon as gravity had its hold on him again and hobbled towards her.

"Nonsense," he grunted, getting back on his stool and dropping the book on the desk violently, raising a cloud of dust that made Cora sneeze. "Now, Everett..."

She stood next to the desk, quietly tapping her foot, as he went down the list of names, taking his time with every single one. She shouldn't have gone there during the festival like Harry had asked. She'd end up wasting the whole night.

"Ah, yes!" the man grumbled at last. "You're lucky, he's alive. Conner Everett, here it is." He opened a small ink bottle and dipped the pen in it, writing the address on the paper right under the name and handing it to Cora. "Done, now scurry away."

With a thousand thanks, she put her treasure in the small pocket in the gown of her dress and hurried away.

Naomi would have her head for making her wait so long on the night of the Hazelnut Festival. As she walked down the corridors, Cora went through a thousand possible excuses until she found the perfect one.

She pushed the front door open and walked out into the chilly night, playing with the slip in her pocket. She suppressed a shiver and ran down the street enlightened by torches, finding Naomi at the end of it.

"Here I am!"

Naomi turned around. "You took centuries!"

Cora sighed. "I know, I'm sorry, it really took forever. We can go now, though."

"One of the few evenings your aunt actually allows you out, and you spend half of it doing only the fairies know what," Naomi mumbled under her breath as they walked to the square, and Cora had to suppress a little laugh that threatened to escape her throat at how accurate the statement was.

"Just something for Mrs. Bouday." The lie felt off leaving her mouth. But she couldn't tell her about her conversation with Harry, she wouldn't understand. Naomi and Adair didn't have the best opinion of him—they seemed to be scared of him, in fact. They wouldn't get it.

"Sounds lovely." Naomi sniffed the sweet-scented air. "Oh, I can smell the chestnuts from here. We absolutely need to get some."

They entered the main square. Every street leading up to it was lit by torches on each side of the road, their flames rising up to the sky, trembling in the fresh air. The crackling of the fire was covered by the loud voices and laughs coming from the people in the square—families, couples, friends, children and the lonely but curious ones all the same.

There were market stalls all around, transforming the entire town in a luminous net of joyful shouts and autumnal foods. There was fire everywhere—on the torches lighting every street and stall, under the large chestnut-roasting pans, in the tricks and shows at the corner of every road.

They stopped at the first stall they saw and got a paper bag of roasted chestnuts each. Cora peeled one as they walked around the square. It was so hot it burnt her fingers. She dropped it back in the bag and stopped to stare at a set of painted carillons before being dragged away by her friend.

Naomi stopped to look at a lilac dress, and Cora tried her luck again with the chestnuts. They'd cooled down a little, and she peeled one and put it in her mouth. It was still hot, but she dealt with it quietly while the woman at the stall tried to convince Naomi to buy her clothes.

"I believe you have something for me," a low voice suddenly said in her ear and she turned around quickly, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

A little smile showed up on her face when she realised it was Harry, but it was wiped away quickly when she remembered the events of the evening before. "I do." She pulled the slip of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him, trying to hide the awkward fumbling of her fingers.

"Thanks," he replied, a mischievous edge in his voice, taking it and hiding it away just as fast. He glanced behind her as soon as he was done, raising an eyebrow. "Miss Naomi."

Naomi frowned and neared them suspiciously. "How do you know my name?" There was a new bag around her arm.

Harry gave her an enigmatic look. "How would I not?"

Naomi narrowed her eyes, not replying.

Cora bit her lower lip nervously. "Do you..." Her voice faltered. She wasn't close with Harry, and she knew it would be an awful idea to push whatever was going on between them even further, especially after the kiss of the night before. But she couldn't help it. "Do you want to join us?"

Harry tilted his head. "While I do appreciate the offer, I'm afraid I'm rather busy." He closed his coat, hiding the familiar hilt of the dagger at his belt. "I'll see you around."

Cora watched him walk away with the address until she could no longer find him in the crowd. With a sigh, she took a chestnut and shoved it in her mouth, spitting it out one second later, when she realised she'd forgotten to peel it in her haste.

"He's weird, I don't really trust him," Naomi said, staring after him as well, and Cora shrugged.

"He's fine," she replied, a wave of annoyance crashing through her. Naomi was too quick to judge Harry. He wasn't alike anyone they'd ever met, but that didn't mean he was a bad person. She wished she could've expressed her thoughts to her friend, but everything he and her aunt had told her tied her tongue before she could.

"If you say so..." Naomi sounded unsure. She shook her head. "Let's just enjoy the festival."

They went around the stalls for a while, discussing the objects on display in them, and stopped to greet people, chatting with friends and neighbours they hadn't got around to hanging out with while the Fair was in town.

Cora liked the moments she got to spend with her friends at the festival. They were so different from what her reality was like, and it elated her, just like the Fair did. Moments like those weren't about magic, or fire, or even celebrating the gifts of autumn. They were about spending time with your friends and family in a different situation, they gave them a reason to dress up and feel special.

Cora wondered if Harry ever felt that way about his Fair, too. If he felt at home in the company of the ones he travelled with for the whole year. But also, she wondered if he had a home, somewhere. Someplace to come back to every once in a while that he could call his.

He'd once told her he felt at home in the woods, but they weren't a real home to her. There was no bed and no bathtub, no door to open. They could be a familiar place, but they didn't hold warmth nor safety.

She didn't know what to think when it came to him.

The celebration was ending and the moon was high in the sky. Everything around them was becoming quicker and quicker, louder and louder, the children were more and more excited, and so were the adults.

The grand finale was coming, the moment they were all waiting for, in which they would give back the gifts of autumn.

Soon they would walk to Lake Lyn in a gleeful procession of lights everyone in the town attended. They would stand on the line of sand and watch as a boat full of nuts reached the middle of the lake and went up in flames.

It was an old celebration that stemmed from some ancient fay beliefs, passed on to them by their ancestors. Ideally, by sharing a part of their autumn fruits and nuts with the God of the Lake, they were pacifying him and making sure the following autumn would be just as rewarding.

That was the idea behind it, but nobody believed in it anymore. Traditions were traditions, though, and as such they were always eagerly followed.

People were grouping up in the middle of the square, waiting for the moment. Conversations were rising all around, and if one had listened carefully they would've heard all the secrets due to sweep through the society of Beilyn in the following months. Cora and Naomi joined them too, still munching on their chestnuts and greeting Adair when he neared them. They were nearly ready to leave for the lake.

That was when it happened.

It started mildly at first, not giving people an idea of the gravity of what was going on.

A man ran towards the group, his eyes wide and worried.

"There's a fire!" he said, at first earning no response from the group. "There's a terrible fire!"

The people around Cora muttered things to each other, confusion in their eyes, not really knowing what to do until a scream rang out.

"It's burning! Everything is burning!"

People turned. The group split and a few ran in the direction of the fire, leaving the rest to stand uncertain and agitated.

"It's all burning!"

"There are people inside!"

Everything became chaos.

People bolted. Some brought water, others bottles and cans, everything they had that could hold water. Others again ran around in a panic, screaming to the midnight sky.

The light of the fire could be seen from afar now, projecting ghastly red hues towards the moon, the strong smell of burnt wood in the air.

"Let's go, I want to see what's happening," Naomi told Cora, pulling her in the direction of the fire.

When they reached it, Cora's mouth went dry.

A house was going up in flames, and a terrified woman was standing in front of it screaming, being held back by a couple of men. The warmth of the fire stung Cora's face and made her hands sweat despite the cold. She'd never seen anything like it before.

If you were to imagine a fire, as indomitable as a wild horse and as tall as the fourth floor of a house, hotter than the deepest pits of hell and scarier than your deepest fear, then, but only then, you'd be able to see the greatness of the blaze that was right before Cora's eyes.

The people around them were throwing water on it, but there was no use: it was unstoppable. It kept getting bigger and bigger as it ate the building away, violent and devastating.

Nobody around them knew when it'd started, how it'd reached that size without anybody noticing.

A sinister creak came from the house as it surrendered to the fire and fell on itself to the piercing screams of the woman in front of it.

The entire group of people went silent, watching the blaze rise up higher and higher into the sky of the night, a sense of powerlessness filling them when they realised there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Then, a chill went down Cora's spine.

The number of the house, attached to the gate in front of the house, was an all too familiar one.

It was the address she'd given to Harry.

She widened her eyes and took a step back, instantly feeling sick.

The house was going up in flames. She'd told Harry the address, and now the house was going up in flames. It couldn't be a coincidence.

Harry had set the house on fire. He'd set it on fire, and that was why nobody could stop it. It wasn't a real fire, it was a twisted product of magic, one Harry had created.

And she'd allowed it to happen.

What had she done?

Cora was sure she was about to throw up. Someone was inside—probably dead by now. It was all her fault.

Why?

She took another step back, jumping when she hit something. Before she could turn around a hand fell over her mouth, and she was yanked away from the street.

She fought against the hold, kicking back.

The stranger let go of her and grabbed her arm, forcing her to run, but her voice got lost under the roar of the fire.

"Move," a deep voice said, and her mouth fell open in surprise when she realised it was Harry.

She tried to free herself from his grasp, but there was no use. "Let me go!"

Harry clenched his teeth, annoyed by her stubbornness. "I won't say it a second time, Cora." The threat in his voice was clear as he tugged her away by her arm.

They turned into another street and panic rose inside Cora when she saw his black horse was waiting for them.

"What are you doing?!"

He hauled her on top of it and got on behind her, wrapping an arm around her middle to keep her from throwing herself off and leaning in to whisper something to the animal.

He barely had time to straighten up before the horse galloped away, taking them out of Beilyn in a matter of minutes.

"What is going on?!" Cora cried out. The wind in her face made her tear up. She got no reply. "Stop this right now!"

Her words got lost in the air just like she herself had, and she closed her eyes. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. It's just a dream.

The horse stopped and she opened her eyes, slowly, frowning when she realised they were on top of the hill her city was splayed under.

Harry got off of the animal and offered her his hand to do the same, but she looked at it warily before ignoring it and getting down herself.

"Why did you do that?!"

"It's best if we aren't there right now," he simply replied, turning around to look at something behind her.

She followed his gaze and her heart dropped when she saw what he was staring at.

The fire could be seen from there.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. x
Miki