"She grabbed the Prince’s hand. It was softer than she expected, a brush of snow against her hands stained red. She tipped him back and he squirmed as he felt the pull of gravity. Then she caught him, the rush remaining in thin tendrils around his heart. She stared into his eyes and smiled, holding the Prince in the final breaths of a dance not yet fulfilled. Then she pulled him to his feet and walked back to the window, leaving only the cold air between them. 

“What do you say, your majesty? Another night of nothing, or a taste of humanity?” The tattooed lines beneath her eyes crinkled as she smiled a wide, toothy, grin."