Page 72 of Crown of Wings and Whispers

The next day, I cried uncle. My body needed to recover, and the last thing I wanted was to go outside and watch the sun fail to pull itself up into the sky one more time. So I stayed in the cabin, pretended the darkness was due entirely to a lack of windows, and lit every little light I could find, battery rations be damned.

Unable to explain my raw mood, I found a fat novel written in English and immersed myself. I thought Griffon might run away and find something to do outside, but he puttered around in the kitchen, making a surprise, he said. Two hours later, I began to smell something delicious.

I set the book aside. “What did you make?”

“Sit at the table.”

My stomach growled as I did as I was told.

“Close your eyes.”

I heard him moving heavy pans around. “The suspense is killing me.”

He set a single plate on the surface. “All right. Open them.”

Filling my enamel plate was a giant, roughly-shaped candy cane sugar cookie, complete with white frosting and red-hot candies creating the stripes.

“Merry Christmas,” he whispered. “I would have found you a better gift, but what do you buy a lass who already has a dragon?”

“Christmas? Is it Christmas?” I hadn’t been paying attention!

“No. Today is the twenty-fourth. If I gave it to you tomorrow, it might not taste as good. Not that I’m promising anything—”

I interrupted by throwing my arms around his neck and giving him a kiss worthy of a giant homemade cookie. Then I kissed him a second time. “And that’s for the frosting.”

He smiled into my eyes. “Anything for the red candies?”

“I’ll kiss you for each one if you like.”

“Yes, please. But you might want to eat them first. You know, to get an accurate count.”

I resumed my seat. “I wasn’t keeping track of the date. I hadn’t thought of a present—”

“I know this will sound cliché, but truly, honestly, all I want for Christmas…is you.” He shrugged and nodded toward the back of the cabin. “And I got my gift early.”

“Same, same,” I said. “So you didn’t need to bake after all.”

He moved his chair next to mine and we sat, hip to hip, and shared the cookie.

“I never want to leave,” I said.

“Who says I’ll let you?”

* * *

I madehim sit while I cleaned up the supper dishes that night. I had just placed the Dutch oven on top of the coals, to re-season it, when I heard Kivi in my head.

Summon me, Marka.

Not tonight. I’m too tired. I need a day off.

No training. Summon me. You need light.

I told Griffon what she’d said, then added, “Light sounds…lovely.”

He jumped up and stripped off his shirt. Together, we banked the fire, set up the fire screen, and walked out into the night.

I tilted my head back. “Jalokivi.”

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