Chapter 23

It was a bitterly cold afternoon, heavy gray clouds gathering as though snow might fall at any moment. Celia watched the tiny woman blow on her frozen hands. Apparently deciding that wasn’t enough, the woman put her mittens back on. They were cute pink mittens knitted in the shape of strawberries. With a scarf wrapped all the way up over her red nose, she stared at Celia with determined eyes. She had no intention of backing down. “What exactly—” “Moldys said there won’t be any monsters in the Empire for a while.”