Page 98 of Callista and the Elf

I pulled back and then left quick kisses on both her cheeks and the top of her head. She smiled, and I pulled her hand up to my mouth. I kissed the middle of her palm with a slow and firm energy that I wanted her to remember. Then I wrapped her fist closed. “A kiss to keep,” I whispered, “until I see you again… hopefully very soon.”

As I dissolved the smoky wall and sound barrier, I chuckled to see Lyam standing between Alastor and me like a soldier. “About time,” Alastor grumbled. “You have no shame.”

I raised a brow, but did not respond to him. Instead I spoke to the three soldiers who had kept a diligent post around us, but had not been privy to any of our conversations. “I am going inside to confront a threat they’ve told me about. I expect you to protect Callista, especially—”

I pulled my signet ring off my index finger and handed it Callista. “Especially if she feels the need to go inside the Dining Hall.” I pointed at the ring with my chin. “That should get you past any other well-meaning guards. It is, essentially, the key to my kingdom.” I turned back to the guards. “And you three have seen me give it to her.” They dropped into a bow.

“Lyam, I’d like you to find Mylo and give him an update on what we’ve just learned. Please.”

Lyam also bowed.

“And Lyam,” I added. He raised a brow. “Thank you for bringing them. I know we’ve had differences in the past, but this…” How did I finish without sounding ridiculously sentimental? Oh, flames. I was well past sentimental tonight. “This means a lot to me.”

“I’ve never wished you harm, Your Majesty,” he said. “The threat they talked about was believable, and it is why I came.”He smirked. “I’d rather you rule than Guyan, especially after what I’ve just seen here.”

I bowed to Callista and stormed back into the Dining Hall.

As soon as I crossed the steps up to the dais, the pounding headache from earlier returned.

And I understood.

It was Guyan. Guyan attacked me with magic, but he did it slowly so it weakened me without making him look suspicious. But I knew that his magic was most gifted in blood. And my blood was hurting my head.

And then another mystery made sense. My parents’ unexplained poisoning. What had made their blood turn on their own bodies? My cousin. My cousin, who nobody had suspected because he was still young and had recently lost his own parents. Only Guyan and his parents had blood magic, and his parents had died before mine. Guyan had killed my parents.

“Aedan! Are you feeling better?” Guyan’s smile twisted my stomach.

“Traitor.” I hissed the words, palming the table. “I should incinerate you where you stand.”

“And yet you have not.” He stood opposite me and also palmed the table. He knew I knew. “Despite all your efforts at protecting everyone around you with an ironclad ruthlessness, you continually fail when the stakes are highest. You won’t admit it, but you are weak. You secretly care too much.”

“And you are a coward. If you want the throne so badly, why don’t you challenge me?”

“Boys.” Acantha cut in, lowering her narrow brows and pinching her thin lips. She hadn’t called usboysfor more than fifty years. “What is this about?”

I glared at my cousin. “This is about Guyan trying to steal the throne of Hemlit.” I spread my arms, filling my hands with fire. “This is about Guyan killing my parents.” My head still pounded, but this was no longer about a threat of treason. This was about murder.

Gasps from below us on the floor replaced the music that had been playing. Apparently pointing flames at my cousin struck them as scandalous.

Guyan smiled. A horrible, smug, far-too-confident smile. “But here’s a complication, Aedan. I know your head hurts. And only I am capable of curing it.”

It was a good reason to keep him alive, but… he’d been plotting for fourteen years. He killed my parents, and he planned to kill me. He was a danger to our entire kingdom. I’d killed for less before.

I willed the flames in my hands to grow bigger. It would only take one thought to ignite his body, but…

Throwing the fire at him with my hands seemed more just—it gave him a chance to fight. “I’d rather live with a headache than a murderer.”

I pulled my arm back to shoot the fire at him, but as I did so, a streak of flames crossed the ceiling of the Dining Hall, sending sparks showering down on the hundreds of elves who’d been dancing. I turned, shocked, to my aunt. “Acantha?” Why had she released a bolt of fire?

“A fight like this will not help either of you,” she hissed out.

Guyan looked as surprised as I felt. “And what would you suggest?” he asked her.

The ceiling creaked and two chandeliers that both hungfrom the same beam teetered, their weight straining the now compromised ceiling. Elves on the dance floor screamed and pointed at the precarious structures while stampeding toward the door.

I threw a magic shield across the middle of the great hall’s air space to protect everyone from more falling sparks, though it would not stop any of the ceiling’s beams or chandeliers from falling. Acantha ignored the mess she’d created and spoke louder for us to hear her over the din below. “I suggest a compromise that benefits you both.”

I did not let go of my flames, and Guyan’s magic continued to pound my head, but we both turned toward our aunt so she could elaborate.

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