Claudia was not beautiful in the way of the local noblewomen, with their soft chins and gentle eyes. She was beautiful like a frozen lake is beautiful: perfect, transparent, and hiding the drowned beneath. Her hair was the black of a raven’s wing, her lips the red of a fresh wound. When she stepped from the carriage, she did not look at the manor. She looked only at Lilia’s window.
The carriage carrying Lord Godfrey’s new bride arrived on a day the servants would never forget. The rain fell like tears from a hanged man, and the horses’ hooves sank into the mud of the courtyard as if the earth itself was trying to swallow them. Snow White A Tale Of Terror
“You see nothing,” Claudia hissed, releasing her. “Because you are young. You have bloom .” She spat the word like a curse. “The bloom that drinks the light. The bloom that I once had.” Claudia was not beautiful in the way of
Lilia backed away, her heel catching on a skull. She stumbled. When she stepped from the carriage, she did
Lilia nodded.