My heart thrilled at Elden’s almost casual touch, but my stomach growled angrily once more. “We’ve eaten about everything I packed for our journey.” I handed Elden an apple and the last bit of cheese. I crunched down on my apple and cheese hungrily, trying not to chew too disgustingly in the echoing chamber.
“Yes,” Elden said. “I’m afraid we must return to our tents to retrieve our horses and supplies. It might be a good idea to rest here for the night before traveling back.”
I nodded in agreement, my stomach flipping in wild whorls. A night alone in an enchanted castle with only the Elf King—and we’d already opened our hearts to one another. Spoken the words of love aloud where they could not be taken back. Not that I wanted to take the words back, but the very air felt charged with something. As if the space between us glowed like its very own gemstone.
I searched the corners of my now very tender, very vulnerable heart. It beat steadily for Elden. For every sideways glance, every side smile. Every lingering touch. I wanted him. Wanted his eyes to linger on me, on the curve of my neck, on my lips.
As if sensing my feelings, Elden cleared his throat. “It is settled then.”
We studied the beautiful murals again as we retraced our steps, gathering our enchanted jackets along the way. Blessedly, whatever magic they contained banished the water that ran off of them onto the floor like oil in water. The jackets were dry and warm as we dressed for the frigid cold of the outside.
Elden took my hand as we braced ourselves for the world beyond the palace. Our boots crunched on fresh snow as we stepped outside in the low light of an afternoon sun. The ground beneath our feet was no longer charred, but covered in a beautiful blanket of pure white snow. The wood around us had utterly changed. Tall evergreen trees reached toward the sky, covered in swaths of green needles and puffs of fresh snow. The smell of crisp pine enveloped us like a warm embrace. I blinked back tears as the swelling awe of pure beauty filled me like a pitcher of heavy cream.
The blight was gone.
“A bristlecone pine.” Elden smiled widely at the huge tree standing proudly in the center of the castle courtyard. “I have never seen one so large and healthy. Father said this tree was well over four-thousand years old. I learned that they can live up to five thousand.”
The tree, with its unusual shape, was instantly familiar. It was the same evergreen tree I’d see emblazoned on clothing, flags, and bronze filigree. The symbol of Winterthorn.
“It’s really true,” I said in awe, staring at the gnarly snow-covered behemoth and the forest of evergreens beyond. “The blight?—”
“Yes. It has been banished.” Elden’s answering smile was pure, effervescent. Beauty incarnate. “All because a beautiful, charming, smart human baker gave her heart to the king of the elves.”
He turned to me, the afternoon sun gleaming in his warm golden eyes.
My breath hitched as I stared at him, but I raised my chin in challenge. “And the heart of the Elf King?”
I wanted to hear it. All of this was so unbelievable. A miracle. I needed reassurance that I wasn’t in a beautiful fantasy.
Elden took a steady step forward until the bottom of his chin brushed my forehead. His long white hair tickled my cheeks. He placed his hand on my chin and lifted it as he towered over me. “The Elf King has been yours since the moment you fed him that first pastry. I not only felt your magic that day, but this…connection to you. As if my magic called to you and demanded an answer.”
I thought back on that moment when I held the trembling child that was the Elf King in disguise.
“I felt that, too,” I mused, thinking now of the pull I felt toward the Elf King all along. I was drawn to him, this tether, this string.
“I am yours,” Elden said.
“And I yours.” I answered.
“Forever?” Elden’s lips lifted in a side smile.
“For as long as I have.” I hopped up on the tip of my toes and pressed my lips to Elden’s, reveling in the soft pressure. On the want. The need there. In the strength of his back. In the heady scent of pine and cloves, but we couldn’t linger, as the sun was close to setting.
We continued on. It didn’t take us long to stomp through the enchanted winter wonderland to reach our tent and the horses resting happily inside. Sapphire did manage to snort at me to show her annoyance at our tardiness. It had been an entire day, after all. We fed the horses, gathered our saddlebags, and ate a quick meal of jerky, cheese, pecans, and oranges. Then made our way back to the glowing palace for the night.
We spent the evening in a flurry of heady glances and blushes. Closer to dinner time, I taught Elden how to make a perfect toad-in-the-hole. We cut holes in thick slices of sunflower seed bread, covered the frying pan with lots of butter, then cracked eggs in the holes of the bread. Elden was quite the natural at flipping the toad-in-the holes over to cook on the other side.
We ate the breakfast for dinner with thick slices of bacon and raspberry preserves.
With our tummies full, we found ourselves back on that red couch in the Christmas Room.
“So, this is what Christmas looks like?” Elden asked as we studied the large mural. “I understand the holly and the feast and the music, but this strange weed? I have never studied it before. What could it possibly signify?” He pointed to a bunch of green leaves tied together with a red ribbon hanging from a pair of tall double doors.
“That?” I blushed. “That’s mistletoe.”
“Mistletoe?” Elden said flatly, “Please tell me this has nothing to do with feet.”
“No.” I giggled, “Mistletoe is the name! It’s actually a bit of a parasite, but it lives in the winter while the trees hibernate. I can’t believe I get to share my feeble botanical knowledge with the master.”
