Page 36 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
Maez huffed. “Or what?” Her eyes delighted in the challenge.
“Stop,” I commanded, stepping between the two of them. I didn’t know to whom I addressed the order. I looked at Maez. “Give me one minute.”
“One,” she said tightly, stalking off into the snow, away from the others.
“Maez,” Grae tried to call to her, but she ignored him and kept walking. His face fell. His cousin, his best friend since childhood, acted as if he was a stranger to her—no more than a ghost.
“Briar what is going on?” Calla asked. “What has she done to you?”
Done to me? The question nettled the edges of my mind. Would Calla even believe me if I told them I was coated in the blood of the personIkilled, not Maez? That I slit that Wolf’s throat and it feltgoodto finally not be waiting for someone else to defend me? Maez believed I was capable of it, proud even, of my newfound courage to fight for myself.
Trying to force that courage into my voice, I looked at my twin. “I’m going with Maez, Calla.” They opened their mouth to protest but I pushed onward, “She’s still there, underneath it all. I saw it the last time we shifted. I think... I think there’s still hope, and I can’t give up on her.”
“Briar.” Calla shook their head. “It’s too dangerous. That magic is unpredictable, you don’t know if—”
“She won’t hurt me,” I said with such assurance that I suddenly realized I believed it. Maez wouldn’t hurt me, at least not intentionally, but I wasn’t about to say that while my twin was panicking.
“Don’t go with her,” Calla pleaded. “Stay with me. I needyou. Olmdere needs you. Our family’s court is falling apart and...”
“Look around you, Calla,” I said. “Maez’s power is a weapon we can’t afford to lose, let alone get into the wrong hands. She could win us this war.”
“If you can find a way to control her,” Calla said. “Which you won’t. Dark magic isn’t to be trifled with, Briar. She could turn it on us the second Nero is dead.”
“We’ve got to try,” I begged, trying to urge my twin to understand. “Please.”
“I know it’s hard to let her go,” Calla said, a desperate look in their eyes. “I know you loved her.”
“Loveher,” I corrected. “Gods help me.” Emotions constricted my throat. “I love her even still. I love heralways.”
“Briar—”
“If it were Grae,” I cut in. “If it wasyourmate. Would you ever give up on him?”
Calla’s golden eyes guttered. “No,” they said, resigned. “Never.”
I knew they understood now that I was never going to let this go, never going to move on. I felt it, too, like a claiming. I couldn’t go back to Olmdere and just live my life as a passive participant in someone else’s story. I was sick of being a doll. I had a life, a purpose, and it began and ended with the cloaked figure at the edge of the forest.
“I love you, Calla,” I said, getting choked up. “I love you and I will write every day and keep you updated and do everything in my power to keep you on our family’s throne, but don’t ask me to leave her, because you know I can’t.”
We looked at each other and both shifted, instantly hugging each other, our twin telepathy still as strong as ever. They hugged me so tightly I thought they might crack a freshly healed rib, and I hugged them in return just as fiercely.
“I love you, too, Briar,” Calla murmured. It was all they needed to say.
I hated releasing Calla from that hug, but finally I did, stooping to grab a discarded blanket from beside the sleigh. I wrapped it around my bare shoulders, encasing me with warmth and stalked off through the snow toward that cloaked spot in the distance.
Maez didn’t turn to greet me. “I suppose this is goodbye,” she said. “You’ve found your people again. Time to go home.”
“No,” I replied, and she looked over her shoulder. “I already told you: I’m coming with you.”
Her brow arched in surprise, something in that darkness clearing, and I saw how desperately she needed me to say it. “Why?”
I held her flashing emerald eyes and said, “Because there is no home without you.”
Sadie
I WAITED UNTIL THE MOON WAS HIGH IN THE SKY TO UNTANGLEmyself from Navin’s warm arms and creep from my bed. The waning moon welcomed me as I padded on bare feet through the cool earth. I loved her in every form, but this... here beneath the pine trees of Damrienn was my favorite way to view the Goddess.
I heard the soft hum long before I spotted them. I walked through the woods, following the sound until I spotted Galen den’ Mora. Ora sat on the back steps, watching as the oxen grazed through the forest undergrowth. Haestas had taken off on her midnight flight to scour the southern forests for deer to eat—hopefully she’d bring some back for us. I still wasn’t sure if Navin had to command it from her every time or if it was an ongoing order. I pondered the magic as I wandered. The nighttime forest was a quiet whisper apart from Ora’s song.
