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He had been planning this for a while? Melantha’s chest unknotted, and instead she was filled with warmth.

As they neared the top of the stairs, a gust of wind whipped through the opening, and she snuggled the collar of her fur coat tighter. Her breath misted in front of her face as they stepped through the opening onto a broad ledge near the top of the mountain.

Their back was to the outer wall of Osmana while the mountain around them dropped on the other sides. Before them sprawled Osmana, tiny curls of smoke marking the various dwellings and warm torchlight filling windows and dotting the blackness like a sea of stars below to mirror the one above. Beyond the town, the snow-capped mountains glittered in the light of the stars as far as she could see. To the southeast, the section of mountains infused with Farrendel’s magic held a hint of a blue glow that was more noticeable at night.

A pile of furs and blankets were spread on the ledge in the nook formed by the outer wall and two low walls that blocked the wind.

Rharreth gestured with the tray. “The perfect place to watch the northern lights. They should be spectacular tonight.”

“Really? How can you tell?” Melantha hurried across the ledge and snuggled into the layers of fur and wool.

Rharreth sat beside her, close enough that his body warmed the blankets beside her. “I can sense the mountains, the northern lights, and things like that. I rarely ever get lost, even in a snowstorm.”

“That’s a helpful talent.” Melantha tucked her toes closer to him. Even in her fur boots, her toes had gone cold during their walk through Osmana.

Rharreth set the tray in the space in front of them and took off the metal covers, revealing bread and a roast, steam still wafting from the meat. “The hunters brought in several caribou today.”

Melantha’s mouth watered. She had been used to dining on venison often in Tarenhiel, where the game was plentiful. But in the frozen land of Kostaria, meat, like everything else, was in short supply. “Thank you for saving us a feast for tonight.”

Rharreth’s grin just widened, and he pulled out a bottle of elven juice and two glasses from where they must have been tucked alongside the blankets near the wall. “I thought you might appreciate a taste of your homeland.”

“Thank you.” Melantha leaned forward, then halted, not sure what she had been about to do. Had she been leaning in to kiss his cheek? She cleared her throat and looked back to her plate of food. “Let me guess, no one else wanted it?”

“Well, none of the warriors wanted to trade their mead for the ‘sissy elf drink,’ but I hear that there were plenty of takers among the common citizens. Don’t worry. I set aside some for your hospital before trading any away.”

Hopefully, more of them would begin to appreciate something made by elves, even a simple thing like juice. It would break down the barriers that had existed between the trolls and the elves for centuries.

Rharreth poured a glass for each of them, and they dug into the food before it cooled in the frigid mountain air.

As Melantha set aside her empty plate, the first shimmer of bright green streaked across the sky. In the past weeks in Kostaria, she had caught glimpses of the northern lights, and she had seen faint flickers of them occasionally in Tarenhiel. But, sitting at the top of the mountain with Rharreth with nothing but the open sky above them, the lights seemed more magnificent than anything she had yet seen.

More colors formed shifting, glowing patterns in green and pink, tracing ribbons across the sky. The bright colors painted across the mountains, turning the snow pink, then green, then a glowing pink again.

Melantha snuggled closer to Rharreth and, feeling daring there in the darkness with only the brightness of the stars and the northern lights illuminating them, she leaned her head on his shoulder.

After a moment, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, tucking her closer against him.

Melantha rested a hand on his chest, tucking her cold fingers beneath his coat to warm them against his soft shirt and hard chest. Cradled against him, she felt safe. Not just physically. But here, with him, she was safe to be herself. She could be angry. Passionate. Shout. Yell. Break into a thousand pieces.

But she was also safe to love. To feel compassion all the way to her bones. When anger and bitterness had started crowding out everything else from her chest, she had forgotten how to feel anything. She had become a hollow shell. The image of a perfect, elven princess on the outside, but nothing but seething emptiness inside.

As she watched the northern lights blaze across the sky, she felt filled in a way she had not in decades. Perhaps, in learning to open her heart to Rharreth and his people, she might be able to learn to love her own family again the way she ought to have loved them all along.

Melantha tilted her head to look at Rharreth. From this angle, she was looking at the square line of his jaw, his white hair brushing over his tapered ears. The colors from the sky played across his skin and his hair, shining in his eyes. “Thank you for tonight.”

He shifted as he glanced down at her. A smile softened the line of his jaw. “You’re welcome.”

“I can think of one thing that would make it better.” Melantha reached up and traced her hand along his jaw. She was free to be herself, and she was not going to hold back.

Rharreth cradled the back of her head as she leaned closer. “Are you sure?” His voice was a brush of a whisper across her face.

“Yes.” Melantha’s own voice was a whisper.

She was not sure if she kissed him. Or if he kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let herself feel. Deeply. Tenderly. With every fiber of her being and beat of her heart.

Rharreth woke to thefirst rays of the rising sun shining against his eyelids. Cold frosted against his hair, his face, and his ear, but the thin layer of ice didn’t bother him since his magic protected him.

Melantha lay cradled in his arms, the sunlight shining against what little of her long, black hair he could see over the blanket she had pulled over her head to ward off the cold. She still slept, breathing evenly and deeply.