Page 54 of Callista and the Elf

“They’re gorgeous,” I explained. “Stunning birds with impressive spirit and fight, bold, resourceful hunters, but also sometimes problematic. They’ve been known to start fires deliberately.”

She pulled her hand out of my elbow and walked faster. “I do not start fires.”

I grinned. “I think you do. And they’re big, beautiful—”

She turned and faced me with glassy eyes, and I stopped talking.

She blinked furiously and her voice quivered. “Fine. Maybe I do. But maybe those fires aren’t all disasters. Maybe sometimes they’re good.”

What had I done? “Callista, I— I think I implied something that I did not mean to…”

A sadness slipped through the bond, choking out my words.I’dmade her sad. “I meant everything I just said as a good thing. I don’t know how—”

“In what world is starting fires a good thing? You specifically said it was problematic.”

“They do it to chase prey out of the grasses. It’s incredibly clever.”

“Then whyproblematic?”

“Callista,you’re not problematic—”

“I know very well that I’m problematic.”

“What?”

“I know that I start fires! I know that almost everything I do ends in disaster. I don’t need you to reinforce that!”

“Woah.” I stopped walking. “I do not think that at all.”

“Then why did you say it?”

“Because—” I could not tell her that she lit my heart on fire. She deserved better than to deal with a broken, cursed king falling for her. But I could not have her thinking that I thought that she was a walking disaster.

I turned her toward me and held her shoulders while my mind scrambled for the right words. She stared at the plate in her hands, so I whispered. “Because you have a strength that lights up the darkest corridors.”

Her breath stilled, like she was holding it, waiting to see what I would say next.

“Firehawk. You have a brightness that burns through the shadows that obscure happiness and kindness. You have chased those sweet moments out of hidden corners and into the open.” She lifted wary eyes up until they met mine. “We…”

No, I would not hide behind general group language when she risked everything she was every moment she was here. “I have needed your brazen flames.”

“Really?” she breathed.

I nodded. “Yes. I swore, thirteen years ago, to never lie—or deceive the way I did then—again. Whatever else you might wonder, do not question this: I appreciate what you’ve done since you’ve come here.”

She relaxed her shoulders and tipped her lips into a small smile. “Thank you.”

I dipped my head. “It is the truth.” I pointed a hand down the hall. “Now, do I get to sample this… is it a fae or human drink?”

“Human.” She looped her arm back in mine, sniffed, and talked again. “Well, I think the fae have a different version that they mix with some kind of magical liquors or something, but the story is my grandmother loved lemons because they were one of very few fruits that grew in both her native fae kingdom and here. She died when my mother was young, but not too young to have learned to love lemons. Then, my mother married a human and moved to the other side of the river, and he introduced her to lemonade.”

Her voice warmed with a smile. “She might have added magic to it or something, but I can make it very close to how she did, which—” She tipped her head at me and gave me a side-eye. “—is actually a big deal because most of the things I try to make do end in a disaster. Alastor has been using magic to help with my cooking for thirteen years.”

“Ah, I see the… um… source of our miscommunication.”

She ducked her head. “I… might be a little sensitive about it. That, and—” We stopped in front of the kitchen door, but I did not open it. I wanted her to finish what she was saying. “—and I do make a lot of disasters. Just since you’ve met me—I thought I’d rescue Alastor, and I ended up getting bound to a drekkan. I thought I’d found my mother, and I nearly got roasted by giant crabs.” She shrugged.

I shook my head. “You did save your brother. I—” Shame burned my throat, but I would be honest with her. “I would have killed him if you hadn’t come. And the rose bush did lead you to information about your mother, to my eternal dishonor. You have also helped the D’Aeran twinsgrow up and… you’ve helped me. Do not make light of the good you’ve done.”

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