The moment Nora Davis apologized to him in the middle of a grocery store aisle, Eli Leonger knew he liked her more than a friend. When she broke down his song and gave him feedback, he was doomed.

Nora was quirky yet smart, quiet yet mighty, and she kept her personal life locked tight behind a guarded metal door. She was a breath of fresh air, and if he let her get away, he'd regret it for a good chunk of his life, if not forever.

Showing her his music brought this intriguing light in her eye. As he played his song for her in his bedroom, she'd focused directly on the music, nodding her head slightly with the beat and frowning at certain moments. It was like he'd activated some deeply hidden part of her personality.

It was hot.

And he was in so much trouble. Because he'd never had this deep, churning hunger in his gut before. He'd had a crush in grade school, so he'd recognized the feeling, but he'd never expected it to be this...intense. It made him want to know Nora Davis. To know her life, her responses, what she liked, what she hated, her pet peeves—the list was endless.

He wanted to see how she viewed the world – but for now, he'd start with the palace gardens. He'd spotted the spark in her eyes when they'd walked through the Great hallway earlier. Now he wanted to see it again.

He led her to the gold-finished elevator doors at the end of the hallway, then down to the main floor. From there, it was two turns back to the long-windowed doors leading to the back patio.

He would give up many things to see her reaction to the palace gardens. Living in the palace, he'd become used to the show of riches. And while he liked the palace gardens, he wished he could experience them the way outsiders did.

They stepped out onto the back patio and down the steps to the cobblestone pathway. Salt dotted along the path to ensure no one slipped outside. The trail followed straight forward to the large white fountain that ran continuously in the summer. Right now, it was off, the water drained. The delicate marble angel decorating the top had snow along her wings and down her dress. The dark stoned path wrapped around the fountain and then went out in four directions.

The palace gardens were massive, perhaps the same acreage as the palace itself. The carefully constructed foliage was awash with color and life in the springtime. In the winter, though much of the plants had withered away, the bushes remained. He loved the way the snow traced along the edges of each carefully crafted bush and tree.

He led Nora off to the path on the right, and back towards where the bushes formed a waist-height wall. Their pace was slow. Easy enough to allow Nora to glance around and take everything in with her wide eyes.

"It's beautiful," she breathed. "It's like a whole other world."

"It is," he agreed. "You'll have to come back in the spring, right after they plant the bulbs and roses. It's a sight."

Evenly spaced along the path were little stone sculptures. Each section of the palace gardens followed a season – spring, summer, fall, and winter. The sculptures and plants along the path followed the same theme. Spring always had bright, pastel colors and full, sweeping trees. Winter had fewer flowers than the other seasons, but more twisting sculptures of thorns and ice-encased fruit.

It'd taken Eli way too long to notice each section had a theme in the first place. For him, as he grew up, it was something that just was. Until recently, he'd never taken the time to look more in-depth at the expansive gardens his room overlooked every day.

He brought Nora through the winter side, loving the way she slowed further to take it in.

Her breath was a cloud on the air as she said, "I don't know how you'd ever get used to this."

"Somehow, your mind finds a way."

Nora spread her arms out, gesturing at everything in front of them. "This is beautiful."

"My sister would agree with you."

"It's inspirational in a way," she said and turned to him. A smile lit her lips, a spark in her eyes. "It makes you want to write."

The light in her face made his own soften. If this was what it took to put that expression on her, he'd bring her here every day.

The two of them were quiet a moment, their boots crunching against the salt lining the path beneath them. They came upon Eli's favorite sculpture, a snow owl caught mid-flight, his wings sweeping out around him. Snow lined the tops of his wings and along his beak. Though barely as tall as them, the stone was so carefully crafted, so detailed that, as a child, he'd run around it, pretending it was his own pet. That he could leap onto its back to lead his armies into battle.

Nora stopped as the path forked around the piece of stone. Two benches lined along the side of the sculpture, facing away.

Eli looked up toward the sky, his hands in his coat pockets. Today was overcast – a perfectly calm winter day. "Why is it important no one knows you write songs?"

She glanced over her shoulder at him, her black-rimmed glasses sliding down her nose. "Are you trying to distract me, so I'll answer your pressing questions?"

He laughed. "That was not my intent, but if it's working, I'll take it."

She turned to him and burrowed her hands deeper into her own pockets. After a moment, she spoke, her words smoke in the winter air. "Students at Jostlin Academy don't like Scholars."

He'd have to be blind not to see that. Jostlin was an elite school, filled with their generation's most musically gifted. And it was also filled with their generation's rich. Instead of admiring the students willing to work their ass off to get into the school, other students looked down on those without money.

Because as much as it sucked, money went a long way in Sarias' society.

He wasn't one to talk. It was one of those things he'd noticed, yet couldn't do much about without looking like a complete hypocrite.

"It's not something I'm proud of," he told her quietly.

She shook her head, her gaze over his shoulder, unseeing.

What was going through her mind right now?

"It's not your fault teenagers in Sarias suck," she said.

"But not us, of course."

Her eyebrow raised, a smile flirting at her lips. "Of course." Her gaze went distant again. "I'm trying to stay under the radar. I don't want to cause any trouble. I just want to do my four years and...move on with whatever it is I'm meant to do."

He noted her hesitancy with the last part of her sentence. As if she wasn't sure where she would go next.

"If the other kids at school thought I was trying to get in their way, if they thought I was one to compete with, it would bring in a lot of drama," she said. "I want to be respected as an artist and as a writer... Right now, I don't think Jostlin is willing to give that to me."

It was like a punch in the gut. He'd always been in the spotlight. Always known that if he wanted, respect and success could be handed to him. Though he preferred to work on his own and make his own mark on the kingdom, he'd never taken the time to think about how hard it was for others to grow and develop their own place in the kingdom.

"What about your family?" he had to ask. Felicity was kind – he knew if Nora wanted, Felicity could help her rise to a good position. Could give her some of the credit and respect that she needed to build her career.

"My family?" She blinked at him.

"What do they want for you?"

She didn't answer for the longest time. Long enough that Eli wondered if he'd somehow asked something wrong. Or stepped unknowingly onto a land mine.

"I'm not sure what they want for me," Nora shrugged. A cold breeze swept lightly through her hair.

Even he was hesitant about treading forward. "What about your father?"

Nora's shoulders fell slightly. She didn't ever talk about her father. Paul Davis had had a heart attack two years ago, his sudden death a shock to the music industry. Even though he wasn't the CEO of a major production company, he'd still had artists and other production industry executives at his funeral. Even Daxton, while unable to go to the funeral himself, had made a significant donation to a coronary health hospital in his name. If there was one thing people remembered about Paul Davis, it was his jovial laugh and giving nature. He wasn't cut-throat like other CEOs, and while he was smart enough to hold his own in the business, he hadn't had the connections to make it to the level of a Cavenaugh Productions.

He'd overheard Daxton and Lizzie talking about it one time during dinner. It was evident in their conversations that Daxton had respect for the man. "He'd left the building blocks for what will be a big competing company for Cavenaugh Productions," Daxton had said. "I'd had hoped to eventually do a merger."

Eli wondered if Nora knew what Daxton had been hoping for. Who had been there to pick up the company once he'd passed? He'd never taken the time to find out. Now he wished he'd dug deeper into Paul Davis.

"I think," Nora said softly. So quiet, he almost couldn't hear her over the cold wind in his ears. "he would've wanted me to be a songwriter."

"Then that's what you need to do," Eli said.

Nora snorted. "Maybe someday."

"Why not now? You can always start a Musetunes account."

She hesitated. Then, "I can't sing."

Neither could he. Well, he could hold a note, but he wasn't a fantastic vocalist. Not like his sister. "I can help you out there if that's the issue."

He tilted his head, trying to meet her eyes. But she refused to look at him. "I don't know the first thing about starting a Musetunes account," she mumbled.

Why wouldn't she meet his eyes? It was as if he didn't have her full attention. "Nora."

She looked over his shoulder, at the snowcapped bushes behind him, at the overcast sky.

"Nora." Frustrated, he reached forward and pulled her hands from her pockets to hold them in his own. Despite them being in her pockets for the last few minutes, they were still ice cold. She had long and slim fingers – pianist's fingers. He didn't want them getting too cold, so he tugged her forward, deliciously close, and tucked her tiny hands in his own pockets, then covered them with his own.

This close, he could see the tiny faded dotting of freckles along her nose. Her caramel hair looked just a smidge red, and her eyes were wide behind her black-rimmed glasses.

Among the cold winter scene, she was beautiful, in an entirely understated way.

Now that her hands were in his pockets and they were entirely too close for what was considered friendship, he had her full attention. "I'm not pushing you to get a Musetunes account. I don't think you should do anything you don't want to do," he told her. Then, after a quiet second, "I just think other people need to see this talent of yours."

Her hands in his pockets slackened, and the smile she gave him made something in his chest seem to click into place. "You might be the first person to tell me that."

The first? What about her family? Surely Felicity had told her to pursue what she wanted to in life.

"Well, it's true," he said.

She bit her lip, "I need to tell you something."

He waited.

"I do actually write songs," she said. "I write for—"

Loud, trilling chimes interrupted her. Nora frowned and gently pried her hands, now toasty warm, from his pockets. She fished out her phone and took a few steps away. "Yeah?"

A pause, then her frown deepened. "It's not until eight."

Eli was not happy with whoever was on the other line. Not only did they interrupt when she was finally about to tell him something important, but as she talked, her body language changed.

She turned toward the owl, her back to him, her shoulders slumping inward. "I can't do that," she glanced back quick towards him and mumbled something else.

A pause, then, "No. Because it still won't be done."

Whatever the other person said had her spine straightening. "You know what? Fine. I'll give you what I have—" Eli's ears perked up, his own frown forming. "—but don't whine when it's not—"

She quieted. Then hung up.

"Nora?"

She looked up at the dreary gray sky, took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. When she turned back to him, Eli knew something was wrong. Wrong, wrong. "You okay?"

Her boots crunched as she walked over, sliding her phone back into her pocket. "I'm sorry I have to go. Thank you for hanging out today," she half grinned at him, though it didn't meet her eyes. "I had a lot of fun."

"Of course," he said automatically. Something inside him told him not to let her go, not without...something. "You're welcome to stay. We can have dinner at least before you go."

She shook her head. "There's something I have to do."

She started down the path back to the palace. Rooted in place, Eli could only watch her go.

Then he blinked. Got himself back into gear and caught up to her. "Nora, are you sure you're okay?"

She shoved her hands deeper into her pockets and wouldn't look at him. "I will be."