Episode 163 Burn Bright
Burn Bright
“He likes you,” Cerian says as Starfire nuzzles Elowyn’s neck.
She runs her hand along the sweet unicorn’s glossy chestnut coat and smiles. “I believe his affection is because he senses you are someone special to me. He’s beautiful, Cer.”
As Cerian pats Starfire’s nose, Elowyn’s smile grows. When Cerian said he had a unicorn, she expected an outgoing, exuberant creature like Stardust.
Starfire’s affection is shyer at first. Hesitant. But fierce once he decides you’re someone he can trust.
Cerian’s perfect match. No wonder the magic brought them together.
“Elowyn,” a voice says behind her, and she turns to see Pera approaching. Rominy stands nearby, laughing with Tharios about something while Jonas and Taliel hover in the background. Arisanna seems permanently joined at the hip with Cerian. The sight makes Elowyn smile.
“I thought perhaps I’d fallen through the cracks,” Elowyn says as Pera pulls her into his arms.
“Never. You and I need to talk.”
She assumed it was coming.
“I’ll be back,” she says quietly to Rominy, and he glances her way and nods.
She could have brought him with her, but she wouldn’t mind a few moments alone with Pera. Not that she has anything to hide from Rominy.
Just questions she doesn’t know how to ask with him standing there, loving her with his whole heart.
Pera leaves his arm around Elowyn’s shoulders as they wander away from the warrior elves packing up to return to Darlei.
“I know where this is going,” Elowyn says. “I shouldn’t be here. I should have stayed at Windhaven. Or better yet, Nunia. I shouldn’t have done so many things.”
“Is that my voice echoing in your head or yours?”
“I don’t even know.” She sighs as she gazes at the forest Cerian loves so much. “I’m unsure how to be myself and...and someone else at the same time. I thought I could be both, but...”
She probably sounds insane.
“For discussion’s sake, why would you wish to be anyone but yourself?” Pera stops walking, and Elowyn turns to look up at him.
“Because I’m a future queen, Pera. Of Nunia. I’m not...” She gestures wildly, as if that will somehow make the words come together in a coherent fashion.
She rarely struggles for words the way Cerian does.
“What makes you think the future Queen of Nunia isn’t someone exactly like you?” Pera tilts her chin to meet his gaze, his eyes penetrating to her very essence.
“When that arrow sank into Jonas’s chest, I saw it hitting Rominy instead. Rominy is here because of me. In danger because of me. Am I supposed to sit at home every day for the rest of my life to ensure he remains safe?”
“Tell me something. Why did you venture here instead of remaining at Windhaven?”
“To ensure Cerian was all right. And Uncle Quilian. Because you trained me to be a warrior. Because a warrior doesn’t sit at home while people she loves are in danger.”
“I didn’t train you to be a warrior, El. Or a queen. Or to wear a label or fit into any sort of box. My heart in everything I taught you was to help you become the best version of yourself possible. Because you are exactly who you were always meant to be, and—”
“Who I am is enough.”
“Yes. Always. Even when mistakes are made.”
“You got so mad at Tharios. Why aren’t you mad at me?”
“Who says I’m not mad at you? For putting yourself in danger like that, to say nothing of Rominy or the others you brought with you?”
“Well, you certainly don’t sound mad.”
“Would you listen to me if I did?”
She opens her mouth and closes it again. “I don’t know.”
“My job is to help you grow into your best self, and what that looks like will be different for each of you. Tharios is learning his own lessons about what sort of elf he wants to be. What sort of king. But we aren’t talking about Tharios.
We’re talking about you, and I’m about to tell you something I’ve never told you before.
Did you know that when humans marched toward the border before the Battle of the Wildthorne Woods, your mother tried to convince me to stay home? ”
“To...stay home? But you were the king.”
“An untested, untrained king who had no idea how to fill the role he’d been thrust into. And do you know what happened?”
“You got shot.”
Pera laughs as he glances away. “You sound like your mother. Yes, I got shot. Do you know what else happened? I discovered that my weakness wasn’t being untrained, although that certainly didn’t help.
It was imagining that I could do anything alone.
I had to become strong and confident in myself.
I had to. And I had to do it fast. But I would have been nothing without every elf who stood by my side that day.
No amount of confidence in my own strengths could have ever changed that. ”
“Stronger together,” she says softly.
“Stronger together. Always.”
“So how do I do better next time? Unless you’re telling me to stay home, but I don’t think you are.”
“If you stayed home, you wouldn’t be my Elowyn.
The fates gave me an elfling with fire in her heart like her mother and fire in her veins like her father, and that terrified me.
So much fire. I feared I’d go wrong trying to raise you while your mother was ill.
But your grandmother looked me in the eye and said, ‘The way you fail this wildfire of an elfling is to snuff her fire out. Don’t smother the flames, Lorial.
Fan them into life, and she’ll find her way. ’”
A wetness fills Elowyn’s eyes before dripping down her cheek, and Pera wipes it away.
“Burn bright, Elowyn Westaria Montarac. Attempting to extinguish your fire is like trying to blot out the stars.”
“But Rominy. My fire puts him in danger. I shouldn’t have brought him to Lostariel. I should have boarded a train back to Levina and holed up inside that castle made of stone and kept him safe.”
“Does he get a say in any of this?”
Pera shifts to glance over his shoulder, and Elowyn spots Rominy standing there with his arms crossed and his eyes dark.
She quickly wipes her eyes. How much of that did he understand? “Rominy, I—”
“You couldn’t even walk when we left Feressa.
You make it sound as if you dragged me here.
As if it wasn’t my decision to be part of this family.
To fight to save the people and the kingdom you love.
From this moment on, our two hearts beat as one.
That’s what I promised you. Until my end of days.
However long or short that is, I am here, by your side, fighting your battles the way you fight mine.
And I may be terrified at times. But if you were hoping to sit in a castle in Nunia while the people you love need you, then you married the wrong man. ”
A sob grips Elowyn before she can stop it. Whistling wind.
Then he’s there, wrapping his arms around her.
“It will always be dangerous,” he says as she buries her face against him.
“That doesn’t mean we sit at home. And yes, I made a mistake when I told Jonas to leave his men behind.
I thought there were enough of us that we’d be safe, and maybe I was depending on Tharios too much to protect us.
I see that now. I should have brought my rifle when we left Levina.
Stars above, I never guessed I’d need a rifle on my honeymoon.
” He frowns. “I imagined my honeymoon looking much different from this.”
Laughter fights with the tears filling Elowyn.
“You were attacked on a quiet street in Nunia, love,” Rominy whispers.
“There’s danger everywhere. But if I have learned anything from this fierce elven princess who stole my heart and ran, it’s that we don’t let fear keep us from living.
We get up and do the hard things anyway.
Which I may need you to remind me in the future. ”
The laughter wins out, and Elowyn wraps her arms around Rominy’s neck and clings to him.
“We keep chasing dragons?” she says so only he can hear.
He sighs. “Yes. Though I can’t promise I’ll always be excited about it.”
That draws more laughter from her. It’s such a Rominy thing to say.
When she leans back to look into his eyes, he’s smiling.
“I’m going to do a very not-human thing now,” he says, and before she can respond, he kisses her. Right there with Pera standing beside them and warrior elves going about their business nearby. They’ve probably gathered an audience.
But he kisses her anyway. An eager kiss that draws out her fire and makes her wish they were alone in the heartlanding with a gentle drizzle tempering her heat.
Especially with the way Rominy’s hand on her lower back presses her close as he buries his fingers in the braid she’ll probably have to fix when he lets her go.
If he lets her go. His thumb grazes her ear, and her knees buckle as he holds her steady. The tingling in her hands grows stronger. Whistling wind.
She’s about to pull away when he finally releases her lips and presses his forehead to hers. “You are hotter than the summer sun in southern Nunia, love.”
She breathes heavily as she struggles to calm the racing in her heart and tingling in her palms. “You set me on fire.”
Without warning, he stiffens. Then he clears his throat and steps back with a sheepish expression shining from his caramel eyes. “I forgot you were standing there, sir.”
Pera smiles. “I wondered if perhaps that was the case.”
Elowyn fights back her laughter as Rominy covers his face. “Mortified. Look up the word, and you’ll find a picture of me right now.”
Elowyn laughs harder, and Pera drapes his arm around Rominy’s shoulders and pats his chest. “I believe you got through to her better than I could have.”
Rominy huffs his adorable nervous laugh.
Then Pera reaches for Elowyn, and she melts into this embrace with two of her favorite people in the world.
“You’ll make mistakes,” Pera says as he holds them both close. “But make them together. And learn from them together. And next time—”
“Bring more warriors,” Elowyn says. “Don’t attempt to be strong alone.”
“Ah. You are listening. Thank the fates.” Pera squeezes Elowyn tighter, and she tries not to smile too widely.
“We’ll be heading out soon, all right? Don’t wander far.
And drink something because he definitely set you on fire.
Whistling wind, you’re warm. I don’t want you to become dehydrated.
Here.” He hands her the water pouch strapped to his side, which she takes gratefully.
After Pera turns to head back to the stone shelter, Rominy draws Elowyn to his side and looks around at the elves who quickly glance away. “Well. I’m just going to pretend no one saw any of that.”
Laughter bursts from Elowyn once more. “They were definitely watching this human prince set his elven princess straight in the most dramatic fashion. Before setting her on fire.” She takes another long drink from the water pouch Pera gave her.
“Is that what I was doing? I thought maybe I was making a fool of myself. Before kissing you like there was no tomorrow, right in front of your father. I can’t believe he said I set you on fire. I’m going to die of embarrassment any minute now. Even Tharios is smirking at me.”
“Tharios always smirks. Ignore him. That’s what I do.”
Rominy pulls her closer to kiss her temple. “I love you, El. You and your fire and this adventure of a life you’re taking me on.”
“And I love you and that unexpected passion you’re hiding. I may need to draw it out more often.”
“Don’t you dare.” He tickles her side, and she squirms away before stealing another kiss. Then she slings the water pouch over her shoulder and takes off for Starlight as one of Pera’s warriors leads the saddled mare toward her.
Thank the fates Rominy was the prince waiting for her across that field in Nunia.