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He let out a sigh that brushed against her hair. Instead of letting her go as she had expected, he held her tighter, holding her gaze. “I am fine, Essie. Truly. Flinching is such an instinct that perhaps I will always do it. But, I know, right now, that it is you. I know I am not in that dungeon. I am here. I am with you. And I amfine.”

Then, he kissed her. Tenderly. Slowly. The kind of kiss that promised more.

Essie held onto him, kissing him back as she had longed to do since she’d rescued him. She was ready. He was fine. And they were married. It was high time they acted like it.

MELANTHA SAT in thefront row of the benches surrounding the fighting arena as two shirtless male troll warriors faced off against each other.

Outside, the snow lay thick and heavy on the ground. The darkness of this, the shortest day of the year, pressed down onto the mountains, leaving only a sliver of daylight.

Inside, the room was so packed with trolls that Melantha had shed her layers of fur and wool until she was down to a light dress for the first time in this place of ever-present cold stone and even colder ice. Troll warriors had come from all over the kingdom to celebrate the Winter Solstice Feast in Osmana. Not even the blizzards and several feet of snow had deterred them.

Hopefully all her planning for this day would be enough. Would the trolls be able to tell that an elf had planned their celebrations? She was not sure if she wanted them to notice a difference or if she would rather they did not to prove that she could adapt to their customs.

A cheer reverberated around the room, booming off the stones so loudly it took all of Melantha’s training in calm serenity not to flinch. Down in the combat field, one male troll warrior tumbled on the ground, having been tossed by his opponent, another male troll warrior.

Rharreth reached over and rested a hand on her arm, though he did not look away from the fight. Perhaps he had noticed her flinch.

Melantha made sure her spine was straight, her expression blank. As subtly as she could, she touched the dagger belted at her waist. Over the past weeks, Rharreth had added training with the dagger to training with the staff. She still preferred the staff, but there was comfort in having the dagger near to hand when surrounded by so many troll warriors.

The Winter Solstice celebration began with several hours of fighting bouts. Apparently, trolls could not properly feast until after they had fought many, many bloody and sweaty matches while shirtless, for the male warriors, or wearing tight, sleeveless tunics, for the female warriors. Either way, it was as if they wanted to show off as much muscle and blood as possible.

At least, that was Melantha’s way of looking at it. Rharreth had explained that the Winter Solstice bouts were a way different warriors could earn honor and prestige, by winning matches before all the warriors of the kingdom.

The troll warrior placed a boot on his thrown opponent’s throat, pointing his sword at the fallen troll’s eye. “Do you yield?”

The troll on the ground could barely move enough to tilt his chin in a nod and croak something that was probablyyield, but Melantha could not hear it over the roar that was even more deafening than the one before it.

She would never last at this rate. Keeping her magic buried inside her, she carefully called up some of it and stuffed it in her ears. As the magic deadened the shouting and stomping of hundreds of feet, Melantha had to resist sighing in relief. So much better.

Several more bouts progressed in the same fashion. Two warriors stepped into the ring. They beat each other up until blood and sweat was freely flowing. Then one was slammed down or overpowered or eventually tired and was finally forced to yield.

Zavni had a bout with a female troll warrior, who almost seemed to be flirting with him as much as she was fighting, though Melantha could not tell if Zavni’s good humor was flirting in return or just Zavni being Zavni.

Nirveeth and Eyvindur each had bouts as well, though Melantha noticed that only one of Rharreth’s shield band accepted bouts at a time. They did not challenge each other. Perhaps they were under orders not to leave Rharreth and Melantha short-handed. Or, maybe, they fought together so much in training that challenging each other was no real challenge at all.

Either way, the members of the shield band occupied the bench behind Rharreth and Melantha, guarding their back from the other troll warriors gathered around the arena.