Page 35

I stood in a forest fire. Flames surrounded me, scorching my skin, but also burning through my blood. I tried running away from the fire, but I could not escape the pain. Every part of me hurt.

And then something cool touched my hand. The heat in my head faded. The pain that burned through my entire body flowed to my chest and then… disappeared.

A cool hand touched the side of my face, and a voice—a familiar voice, one that brought the warmest, sweetest, safest feelings—whispered my name.

Aedan.

Aedan’s voice strengthened my heart, and I realized I was sleeping.

I crawled toward consciousness, following his voice, until I finally opened my eyes and saw his face—strong, sculpted, but full of tenderness—only inches from mine. “Callista,” he whispered again, brushing his thumb against my cheek. “It is good to see your beautiful eyes one last time.”

He cradled the entire side of my face with his hand and pressed a kiss into my temple. “Please forgive me for leaving you.”

“What?!” I grabbed his wrist and sat up. I expected him to sit with me, but he fell to the floor. “Where are you going?”

Molanna sniffed. I looked up to see her stifling sobs ten feet away from me, wrapped in Jolter’s arms. Red rimmed both Jolter’s and Koan’s eyes, as if they’d seen something truly tragic. The hall was a mess, but Aedan and I were the only people on the ground. Everyone else was looking at… us.

I turned back to Aedan. His powerful body had fallen spread-eagle next to me. I palmed his heart, looking for a pulse. I found it, not as strong as I’d expect, but still there.

He covered my hand with his, holding it to his chest, and spoke with his eyes closed. “Callista. I pulled the poison out of your body, but I could not destroy it. I took it into mine instead.”

What… What did that mean? He wasn’t telling me that he was dying, was he?

He kept talking, slower and softer than normal. “I know I do not deserve to ask anything of you, but I cannot do this myself, and I cannot think of anyone else better than you. If Robin or Jonan ever make it back, you can pass it on to them, but until then…”

He gripped my hand tighter. “Would you please do one last thing for me, Firehawk?”

Tears bit at the back of my eyes. It certainly sounded like he was dying. And if he had taken that burning pain out of my blood— I brushed rich locks of hair away from his face as my heart stuttered with the realization of what had happened. He’d taken the poison out of my blood and into his. He was dying. “Aedan. I’d do anything you ask.”

He smiled. “Firehawk.” He said it accusingly but with so much love and admiration that all I could do was smile back at him.

He reached up to my face, and I leaned closer, letting him touch me more easily. “I already gave you my signet ring. Will you be my people’s queen until one of my cousins—my good cousins can get here? The curse will probably end when I am gone, so it won’t be too long. Just… take care of Sirun. Mylo and Fagan will help.”

My voice got stuck halfway up my throat, so I whispered. “Of course.”

“Thank you.” His hand slipped back to clutch mine still on his chest. “Thank you for lighting up my world.” His words staggered, slower, and barely over a whisper. “I will feed your fire and praise the light anew, spare you every pain, ‘til I prove my heart is true. We will burn the world and light the skies we view, Torch every trial, with the pow’r of me and you.”

Memories of him holding me—not so long ago—and sitting next to me and singing and telling me I was a firehawk in the best ways pushed the tears out of the corners of my eyes. “Aedan— You’re not really going to leave me. Not when you know how… How… How much I need you.”

I squeezed his hand. “You’re the strongest person I know,” I whispered while more tears forced their way past my blockades. “You can’t just lay here and die. You can’t… leave.”

His breathing turned ragged, but he pushed out more words. “I won’t… really… leave you. Every… fire. Every… lemon.” I choked out a laugh between tears, remembering when he was so determined to like my lemonade. He smiled back at me again. “Callista… choose… to believe… I will… hold you… again. ”

He took a slow breath, and his grip failed. I grabbed his hand with both of mine. He wasn’t gone yet, but—it would be soon.

I refused to look at anyone in the crowd around us. I touched his face. Maybe he still felt it, like I’d felt him while I was asleep. I’d heard him too.

What could I say? I didn’t have any words for the way my heart was ripping apart.

But words came to my mind, words that I’d known for years.

This song hurt even more because we had planned for me to sing it to his rose tree. But perhaps it could bring him a little peace as he left this world.

I started out slower than normal, humming the verses again because I couldn’t form the words. But when I reached the chorus, I had to sing out loud—this was the part he’d found so amazing weeks ago.

Find the strength you need to grow,

Find a gift I offer true—

I clutched his hands and imagined his essence rising somewhere, tall and powerful and full of his kind, protective strength.

Strength and health and happiness—

Find the power inside you.

A white light filled the air around us as I sang. It pierced his body and made smokey steam rise from his skin.

But it wasn’t a real light. It was magic. I was seeing magic that rode on the sound waves of my song.

The realization that he had been right all those weeks ago took my breath away. I had purged that tiny rose bush of poison. And if I had done it then, I had to do it now. If I could purge Aedan of whatever magic poison Guyan had attacked me with —

I couldn’t even finish the thought. It was too hopeful, too risky, too dangerous.

But I could sing.

I kissed his hand and sang again:

Find the strength you need to grow,

Find a gift I offer true—

Strength and health and happiness—

Find the power inside you.

I poured all my strength and energy into that song, and I sang the chorus again and again, over and over, trying to see exactly what the magic was doing.

The white light flooded his system. I saw it piercing his skin, and I was sure I felt it finding the poison and incinerating it. Just burning it away. Every moment of light made my own heart beat easier. And if that was really happening—

If that was really happening, all I had to do was sing long enough to destroy all the poison.

Minutes blended into hours. I sang that chorus hundreds of times. I couldn’t stop to explain my reasons, so the people around me must have thought I was in shock or denial, but they were good enough to leave me alone while I sang those four lines over and over. They spoke in hushed whispers and shook their heads, but eventually most of them left.

Mylo and a few guards took a post at the door and Alastor got a pillow and a pile of blankets from somewhere. He wrapped a blanket over my shoulders and then set up a bed for himself about thirty feet away from me.

I planned to sing all night—or at least until the white magic I saw changed or disappeared, but somewhere in the depths of the night, exhaustion overpowered me. I didn’t remember lying down or stopping my song, but I woke up with warm arms around me and my favorite voice whispering my name.

“Callista.”

“Aedan?”

“Firehawk. Open your eyes.”

I shook my head. “No. If I wake up and discover this is a dream, I… I… I’d much rather just stay asleep and enjoy hearing my name on your lips.”

His warm hand rubbed my arm. “Please, Callista. Open your eyes.”

I didn’t argue anymore. I couldn’t argue with him when he said please like that. After a few slow blinks, the world came into focus… and I discovered I’d fallen asleep in the middle of my songs and landed on his chest—as if he were some kind of giant pillow.

I scrambled into a sitting position, and then reached over and tried to smooth out the wrinkles I’d made in his tunic.

He caught my hand and pulled it to his lips, settling a warm kiss on my thumb’s knuckle. Then he flipped it over and kissed the center of my palm. Heat spread from his touch across my whole hand, down my arm, and right into my heart. And then, before my emotions could calm down, he kissed my wrist too.

“I'm going to turn into a drekkan soon,” he whispered, "but I wanted to leave you with a few kisses.” He pushed himself up so he was sitting next to me, though we were facing opposite directions. He reached over, touched his palm to my cheek, settled his fingertips into my hair, and leaned his forehead against my temple.

“I heard you,” he whispered. “I heard you singing, and I felt the poison burn away.” His voice caught, so he leaned closer and kissed my temple. “Firehawk. You burned the poison away. You saved me.”

I whipped my head around so I could see his bright green eyes. “So… you're not dying?”

His wild smile lifted his entire face. “No, I'm not dying. I am, once again, the most powerful elf I know, and it is entirely thanks to you—”

I threw my arms around his neck and cut off his words with kisses. He pulled me closer, drawing me into his heat and… and his heart. It pounded with so much strength that I felt it, calling to my heart, and inviting me ever closer.

But then he moved his hands—his very hot hands—to the sides of my face. “Callista.” The gravelly tones of the drekkan and the heat flowing off his skin reminded me that we were short on time.

“Callista, I love you. I love your unpredictable energy and the fire in your heart. You are leagues above me, but I would give you everything I am, everything I could hope to be, all my power, all my wealth, all my strength, and all my best-intentioned attempts to be a better elf. I would give you everything.”

Tears filled my throat as his voice turned hoarse. Perhaps he, too, wanted to have a conversation without tears interrupting. “And,” he said, “I selfishly want to be here to see you enjoy it. I want to hear you laugh and see your face light up when you're happy. I want to see the sparks in your eyes and the fire in your soul when you decide you're going to fight. And I want to be the one to protect you, to hold you, to comfort, and to please you. I want… you.”

He pulled one of my hands to his chest. “I want you in my heart. Callista, I would give you my very soul. It's a broken, monstrous mess, but I'm offering the pieces to you. Would you marry a beast?”

“No.” My emotions flew in every direction, but he had insisted that I see my weaknesses in a positive way, and I would do the same. “But I would marry an elf who is fighting to be better every day. Who has risen above his own pain and genuinely wants to do right by others. Who is kind and protective and honorable. Who makes me feel important and strong and safe and beautiful.”

I clasped my hands around his neck again. “You, Aedan Vander Ignim . I would marry you. In a heartbeat.”

A fierce smile tore across his face. He pulled me closer, and I leaned in to meet him. His lips burned like flames. Our time was up. He pulled away after the swiftest brush across my skin. “You should move back. I don’t want to burn you, and I will shift at any moment.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck tighter and buried my face against his tunic. “I just got you back from the dead. Don’t you dare ask me to leave you now.”

He hugged me close to him and crossed his arms around my back as he bent his face into my hair and whispered, “As you wish.” His magic wrapped around me in a fiery yellow shield. Was he trying to protect me from the heat of his shifting?

His skin grew so hot I felt it through his clothes. Would those clothes ignite? Would a fire get past his shield?

I didn’t care. I tightened my hold on him, and he pressed his hands into my back in response.

White light exploded from his body, drowning my senses, but not burning me. I couldn’t see anything except brilliant, sparkling white. I couldn’t tell if it was actually an overwhelmingly bright light or if it was just so much magic that my senses were perceiving it as white light.

Despite not being able to see anything, I still felt Aedan—my hands around his neck, his hands on my back and shoulder, his heat burning—while also not burning—everything.

Jagged yellow, red, and orange flames suddenly interrupted the all-consuming white light. They burst out of Aedan’s body like flowers popping out of the ground in the spring. These flames did not burn me either, and I did not know if it was because of their nature or the way he was holding me. The shield he’d wrapped around me had vanished. But my heart felt his, and his heart told me that I was safe. No flames coming from Aedan would burn me.

As the flames replaced the white light, he gasped and took in an enormous gulp of air—the kind of gulp I’d expect if he’d been holding his breath underwater for minutes and then opened his mouth to fresh air. After several ragged breaths, he loosened his hold on me.

I pulled my head back to see if I could find out why he wasn’t gripping me close anymore. Flames still surrounded us, popping and burning the air as loudly as any real fire would, but I didn’t feel them.

Aedan—not a drekkan, but an elf—cupped my head with both hands and leaned close to my ear. “Callista. You saved me again.”