Chapter 21
BUTTERMILK PANCAKES
Aslight jostling awoke me. A slip of a strong arm from under my waist. Elden was moving ever so gingerly, trying his best not to wake me. He tumbled from the bedroll, keeping the blankets snug about my neck. Then he put on his boots quietly and crept over to the horses to lead them outside.
I rolled over, trying my best to fake sleep—as if I could sleep through this!
I was keenly aware of every breath, every slight movement.
I didn’t know what to say to the male after spending a night so warm and comfortable in his arms. I fit so perfectly there in the curve of his body.
The thought of it brought a deep blush to my cheeks.
Elden said my name last night as he’d held me in his arms. He’d called me Noelle… and I was ashamed of the way that one word undid all of my pent-up frustration and anger in one swift blow.
I let him put one large boot in the corner of my heart. Just the corner. Not nearly enough to let him all the way in, but I’d be a fool to pretend he wasn’t on his way cracking through the hard protections I’d built around my heart, little by little.
I could deny it no more.
I was falling in love with the Elf King.
But he’d smiled at me in that crooked way. He’d rubbed my freezing cold feet. He’d spoken of his past. He’d explained the truth behind the maidens, and if there had been a human queen married to the Elf King before then, perhaps—
I groaned and covered my head in the blankets.
I was a fool.
Elden and the horses scuffled about in the snow outside my tent. I sat up and stretched, then shook my head, trying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of my predicament.
“I am well and truly an idiot.” I mumbled to myself.
I needed to focus on the task at hand. I needed to master my magic.
Two days. We had two days until we’d make it to the foot of Winterthorn.
An ache pulsed in my injured leg. I rolled down my stockings to see black poison spreading in small fissures outward from my wound like a great crackling spider’s web.
I had weeks left before this blackness would reach my heart, and I knew with deep regret that Elden had just as little.
Time was not on our side.
I looked toward the flaps of the tent, steeling myself to sprint across the clearing to my tent to gather my boots, jacket and satchel, when I saw my things folded neatly and placed at the foot of my bedroll. Warmth touched my heart at the kind act. Elden had brought them over for me.
A smile tugged at my lips as I dressed for the day. Elden had warmed me last night. He’d even laughed when I’d burrowed my frozen feet between his legs. Whatever this was between us, it was precious and delicate. I would have to proceed with caution.
I stepped out from the flaps of the tent into the light of dawn and gasped.
A blanket of multifaceted crystal snow covered the ground in magical white.
Icicles gleamed from the tips of the trees, swaying in the gentle morning breeze.
The sky shone a clear pink and orange of sunrise.
Puffs of hot air rose from the breaths of the horses and Elden, who tended a small fire.
Snow crunched beneath my boots as I approached.
“Seems we were visited by no fewer than five wolves last night,” Elden said by way of greeting, pointing to the faint paw prints still visible in the fallen snow.
“They were real wolves, right?” I asked. “Not the shade monsters?”
Elden shook his head. He’d rebraided his black hair this morning, and it fell past his broad shoulders and down the middle of his back. “No, these were mountain wolves. They shouldn’t be this far west. The monster must be running them out of their own territory.”
Dread pooled in my stomach. “How will we survive this journey?”
“Jel has brewed a potion or two for us to use in an emergency.” Elden sat back on a snow-covered log. “But I am not worried. I will protect you, this I promise.”
Elden looked at me then, truly looked at me, and my heart soared at his deep golden eyes. All thought left my mind in a dash.
I stood dumbfounded for a moment too long, then remembered myself, cheeks heating and nodded. “I thought I could make us a quick breakfast this morning before we left.”
It was Elden’s turn to smile. “Excellent. Then it is time you learn the third and last pillar of magic wielding.” Elden stood from where he stooped over the fire and made his way toward me through the crisp snow with purposeful strides.
My stomach flipped at the sight of his strong bearing.
“I have taught you that you must have intent, true intent in your thought. Touch is the second pillar. Lastly, there are words that must be spoken or thought.”
“Words?” I asked.
“I will try to teach you what I know, and perhaps you can learn how your own magic responds,” Elden said as he reached out and took my hands in his.
My breath caught in my throat as I held the hands of the Elf King in the midst of a magical snow-covered wood. A forest that had been so loud and full of life last night, yet so cold and stark once the snow had fallen. But with Elden’s hands in mine, I didn’t think I’d ever be cold again.
“It is a very personal thing, magic. But it is also part of who we are. It courses through us as natural as breathing, and yet, if you do not feel it in your heart, then you will fail.” Elden looked deeply into my eyes.
“So magic is something I feel? Like emotion?”
I thought back on when Elden had felt my magic. He had felt hope with my first bake, and peace with my second. Had I infused my baking with emotion as I baked? Had I said those words aloud as I offered them to be eaten? I just couldn’t quite remember.
Everything was so muddled, especially now as a hot blush spread across my cheeks.
“Yes, our magic is very much linked to our feelings, but it works differently for everyone. I must think of which form I wish to take with true intent. Then I have to touch the person or thing with which I am transforming, even a hair will do. Lastly, I must say the words as I touch the item or person.” Elden smiled that side smile that turned my stomach to mush and said, “Terralinel.”
In a flash of white light, Aldaar was standing before me. A wide smile of delight on his sweet face.
“Aldaar!” I giggled. I had to hold myself back from greeting his adorable face with a hug.
That would not be proper at all. “So once you’ve transformed into something or someone…”
“I can take their form whenever I wish.” Elden finished my thought for me. Elden’s voice was no longer his own, but the high-pitched timber of his younger brother. “But our magic works best when we are connected to those around us.”
“You really love your brother, don’t you?”
The twinkle of mischief in Aldaar’s, well, Elden’s eyes couldn’t help but remind me of my own little sister.
I loved Daisy, missed her more and more with every passing day.
She was probably toddling around the house with her favorite little bag, collecting small trinkets to play with later.
She was a little pack rat, her side of the room looked like a down-on-its-luck fairy village complete with crystal shards for light and acorn fairies.
“Yes.” Aldaar’s hand fell from mine as he turned away. “I am worried for his future. For the poisoned lands he will inherit if we are not able to find the cure.”
The king transformed back to his tall, looming self in a flash of white lightning. White gleaming hair and all. My breath caught in my throat. How could I have ever thought that black hair suited this male when the white hair and golden eyes were so superior?
“But what words must I speak? I do not know elvish.” I asked once I regained my composure.
The corners of Elden’s mouth turned down as he thought, “The words are personal to everyone. It must come from the heart. Since you do not speak elvish, I must only gather that your words will be in your own native tongue.”
“My heart?” I knit my eyebrows together. “I can understand why you’d be able to turn into Aldaar if you pulled the words from your heart, but how would you manage a shade monster? Do you have love for them?”
Elden huffed a laugh, his hot breath pluming before his full lips in a curving tendril.
A slight smile lifted his cheek. “Your heart does not only feel love. It feels…passion.” His eyes met mine.
“Deep passions whether they be love or anger or sorrow. All of it, the sweet and bitter can be felt in the heart. That is magic in its truest form.”
I nodded, turning away with a deep blush at the…
passion burning in the golden eyes of the king.
The full force of it about knocked me back, my stomach twisting in knots.
There was that tether again. That binding force that seemed to pull me toward Elden.
As if all I wanted was to live and breathe within his orbit forevermore.
Did he—could he feel the same pull towards me?
I cleared my throat, needing to shake myself from the trance the king used to drag me under so effortlessly. “Then let’s get to work! We’ve got a kingdom, elves, humanity—a continent to save.”
I busied myself with rummaging through my saddle bags until I found what I needed. Flour, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, rising powder, and vanilla were the ingredients I needed for the recipe I’d be making this morning.
“I thought this might be helpful on our journey.” Elden hauled out a large wooden box from inside one of his saddle bags. He folded the many strange layers until it transformed into an ingenious little worktable. The legs folded in on themselves, allowing it to be portable.
“Genius. So, you were betting on me baking out here in the wild?”
“One can never be too prepared.” Elden smiled as he dutifully stoked the fire, heating up the pan I’d brought. “I had Jacob prepare this the day before we left. He stayed up the entire night to finish the design.”