Page 52 of Callista and the Elf

I intended the words to come out as a soft menace, but a hush spread across the entire hall as soon as I finished. Maybe I growled a little.

“I assume you mean Callista?” Fagan practically whispered—nobody in the main hall could have heard him.

“Who else would I have meant?” I made no attempt to whisper.

My favorite advisor inclined his head politely. “Jolter told me he and Koan would be guarding her until after dinner. They did not intend to spend the night in the hall unless Mylo asked them to.”

I scanned the hoard of tables below me. She would never agree to eat with them—she thought they all hated her.

Fagan stepped closer to me and lowered his voice even more. “Your Majesty, can you not tell if she is in distress?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. I would not confirm such a thing in front of Acantha. He should have known better than to ask. “I will not eat until I know she is safe.”

Corridors and rooms blurred past me as I stalked the fortress halls. Where was she? How could Koan and Jolter have not reported their plans to Mylo? Why—

A shot of laughter trickled down a hall where a kitchen servant came from. He bowed to me awkwardly over an empty tray, and then hurried toward the kitchen. I pushed aside my annoyance at the servant’s obvious discomfort around me—I’d only ever protected my people—and pressed into the hall.

The servant had closed the door behind him, but Koan’s laughter filtered through the wall. I reached for the door, ready to throw it open and demand Callista’s location, when I heard a feminine laugh. It wasn’t loud or carefree like Koan’s carefully honed performative expressions, but it was cautious and genuinely entertained.

And it sounded like it could have come from Callista.

Had I never heard her laugh?

I froze with my hand above the door handle and listened. What could have brought a happy sound to her lips?

“You should have seen the cook, though.” Jolter’s slightly more subdued voice joined the fray. “I don’t think he’d ever seen anyone walk into his kitchen on his hands before.”

Callista laughed again, along with several others. I tipped my head against the door so I could hear better. As the laughter died down, she sighed. “This was so lovely. I’m glad you convinced me to come.”

A new voice answered. “We’re glad you came too. You’re the first human or fae I’ve met.” Hemmer. Another young elf trapped inside the curse, but one who did not normally spend much time in the fortress.

“What he means is, thank you for the invitation.” Jemma, Hemmer’s sister. “We should probably cross the bridge before it gets too late.”

“If you want to stop by the dining hall and visit with anyone else, you can,” Koan said. “We’re going to take Callista back to her room, but we’ll go kick up the party there for a bit before we go to bed.”

Interesting. Koan was spending time with lesser nobles now.

“You don’t want to go to the mainhall?” Hemmer asked.

Callista answered. “No. Most of the elves there hate me.”

“Not most,” Jolter corrected. “Just a few that are loudly obnoxious about it.”

She huffed. “Still no.”

Chairs scraped the floor, and I darted down the hall and around the corner. They did not need to know I’d been there.

An hour later I approached her room with a plate of lemons. Mylo stood in the hall and made a pointed look at the fruit in my hand. “Are those… lemons?”

I raised my chin, daring him to challenge my right to have lemons in my own fortress.

“Isn’t it a little early for lemons?”

My eyes skittered down the hall. It was unnecessary, but they wanted to confirm nobody was listening. “I had the greenhouses move a lemon tree inside and begin nudging it to ripen early several weeks ago.”

His left cheek lifted in a far-too-entertained smirk. “Your Majesty, if you’d like to win the lovely fae’s favor, I could make several suggestions that would go over better than the most sour fruit we grow.”

A growl almost escaped my throat. “I happen to know she likes them.”

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