Page 43

“Yes.” Farrendel took another sip.

“See? I’m not so outnumbered anymore.” Essie brandished her mug, as if making a toast. “Hot chocolate is better than coffee. Farrendel agrees with me.”

Beside her, Farrendel froze, as if worried her brothers would call him out on his opinion. But her brothers laughed, rolled their eyes, and reached for more coffee.

Once the roasting sticks were distributed, they toasted apples, sugar-covered dough, and marshmallows over the fire. Eating the treats with his fingers instead of utensils seemed to go against Farrendel’s sense of manners, and he kept glaring at the stickiness on his fingers as if it had personally offended him.

After an hour of stories and several mugs of hot chocolate, Farrendel was blinking wearily. Not that she blamed him. It was the middle of the night, and he hadn’t downed several mugs of coffee the way her brothers had.

Essie took his mug and gave him a nudge toward the two bedrolls set up behind them. “Get some sleep.”

With a bleary nod, he lurched from the bench, sank onto the bedroll, took off his boots, and curled between the layers of blankets and tarpaulin until only the top of his head and the ends of his hair were visible.

Essie yawned and stared into the fire. She probably should turn in as well, but the fire cast warmth onto her face and the palms she held out. The blanket kept the rest of her cozy, so warm and content she wasn’t ready to move.

Averett leaned his elbows on his knees, also staring into the fire. “I’m glad things have worked out so well between you and Farrendel. I feared I’d bargained away your chance at happiness.”

“Avie...” Essie rolled her eyes. How many times did she have to tell him everything had turned out fine?

“Just as long as you don’t get too mushy about it.” Julien scowled.

“It does make me wonder.” The serious tone to Edmund’s voice had Essie sitting straighter. Edmund met her gaze. “He’s an elf. He loves you, that much is plain to see. But what will happen when you age so much faster than he does? You’re going to be forty before he even reaches the elf equivalent of twenty-five.”

Essie tensed, looking down at her hands rather than holding Edmund’s gaze. She could feel Averett and Julien both staring at her, waiting for her answer.

This was an answer she had been dreading. Back in Estyra, it had been easy to accept what the heart bond with Farrendel might mean for her lifespan.

But here, sitting around the campfire with her brothers, a part of her ached. Would this closeness she had with her brothers fade if they aged faster than she did? Would her relationship with them start to look more like what Farrendel had with his much older siblings? A sibling relationship that almost verged on something parental?

“That probably isn’t what’s going to happen.” Essie struggled to find the words. A weariness pressed down on her, and she didn’t want to take the time to tell the whole story of Daesyn and Inara, the elf-human couple who had shared a heart bond long ago. “Elves have this magic heart bond that can sometimes occur. In an elf-human couple, heart bonds can have the effect that the human lives longer, as much as four hundred or five hundred years. And, well, Farrendel and I have already managed to form one. I don’t know if it will give me a long life or not, but there’s a good chance it will.”

Silence stretched, broken only by the crackling, popping of the fire. When Essie gathered the courage to raise her head, her brothers were studying her.

Edmund’s face quirked with a smile, even if it didn’t reach his eyes. “Are you going to get pointed ears or something?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Essie scratched at her ear. Still rounded. “The thing is, if I end up with an extra-long life, Farrendel’s life will be shortened. Apparently, that’s how it works. He willingly gives his years to me or something like that.”

“You think he will give up several hundred years for you?” Averett glanced into the darkness beyond Essie, though he wouldn’t be able to see Farrendel from where he was sitting.

She didn’t even have to think about her answer. “Yes.”