Page 10 of Six Burning Candles

“I cannot cast as well with gloves, nor does the cold actually hurt me,” I lobbed the conversation back at her, hopeful for any semblance of a snide comment or witty remark.

“Suit yourself,” she huffed, tugging the gloves over her fingers. My heart sank into my feet.This is my punishment. Right. I asked for this. I was the one who did this to us.

I told her our dalliance meant nothing. I lied to her face. I gave her what she wanted and ruined anything we had with my cowardice.Because I would not risk my position to be with her?

Maybe she was right to call me a coward.

“This too.” I pulled my cloak off my shoulders. Melrose said nothing to counter my request and pulled the cloak on over her shoulders. She closed it with a sharp, metallic click of the clasp then motioned for me to lead the way. I bowed my head to her and took the first step. It was agonizing for her not to be on my arm. What I considered to be torturous before was now my folly. The real torture was not having her prattle off about castle gossip or incessantly greeting every person who passed us in the hall. We wound through a maze of halls and open rooms in a tense silence.

Damn, I need her to grab something.I halted my march, under the archway leading out to the gardens. I twisted around and caught her as she collided with my chest. “Melrose.”

“What? I wasn’t following too closely, I’ve yet to step on your heels despite the intrusive inclinations to do so,” she muttered with a puppy dog pout on her face. She stumbled back only to freeze as my hands caught the back of her elbows.

“Is that how you solve all your problems?” I cocked a brow.

“No, thus why I haven’t done it yet,” she huffed, slipping out of my touch and standing firmly in front of me. “What do you want?”

“I need lavender oil. I always grab it on the way here while your father starts on the ritual.”

Melrose sighed softly, her shoulders sagging and I regretted how tense I’d let us become. I wanted to give her space to work through emotions, and clearly, she was putting up a barrier. But…if this was going to work, if we were going to continue to live in each other’s space, we needed to return to some semblance of normalcy. “I’m sure you can manage not to get into any mischief while getting a simple vial of lavender oil from the kitchens?”

Her gaze filled with playful sparkles as she immediately cocked out a hip. “I promise to be on my worst behavior, actually.”

“You’re always on your worst behavior,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes. Pivoting away from her, I headed for the center of the gardens. “Try not to need saving, my hands will be full.”

Her harrumph mixed with the patter of her hooves against the stone floors told me my words motivated her correctly. I hated that she was my favorite brat to tame. No one else compared and it wasn’t fair.But life isn’t fair.So, I pushed up my sleeves in the thick gardens and started to prep the harvest ritual. The soil in the castle gardens was the easiest entry point for the harvest blessing. Avaris’ slumber was cast upon the ground, trapping new growth safely beneath the surface until spring. From then, the seeds would sprout with vigor with all the magic that was stored with them. While the trees and bushes hibernated, their roots would soak up magic throughout winter.

It was a massive ritual and usually one the Hierophant was solely responsible for, but something I was trained on. In the off chance he was needed elsewhere, or in this case, he was injured. It started with finding a space of soil in the garden. I dug around till I had a good five by five square of empty dirt. Climbing to my feet, I kicked off my boots so my toes could dig into the dirt. I felt its dry texture between my toes as I rooted myself. My magic hummed within mychest. I let its song trickle out of my lips. A soft melody that floated around my head. Snow swirled over me, and I felt the moon’s presence even though I couldn’t see it.

My wings flashed out behind me, hands spread out, I let Avaris’ blessing come to me. I was bathed in it, feeling her gentle blanket of magic envelope me. Everything about me was cold, from my crown to my toe. My eyes closed as I let the blessing from our goddess flow through me like I were the watering can she was filling up. When the magic nearly overflowed, I began to spread it to the earth.

I didn’t hear Melrose approach, simply felt her presence as the wind buffered slightly in front of me. The only other person who knew the ritual better than me, other than the Hierophant himself, was Melrose. A tender hand drew a wet sigil onto my opened palms. She took up my position in the ritual, using the lavender oil for calming, and a seed we’d brought with us from the cathedral for regrowth. I slowly closed my hands together, coating the seed in the lavender oils.

“Our Lady Avaris smiles upon us this day,” I croaked.

“Blessed be the soil,” Melrose chimed in.

“Grant us your gracious slumber, keep our crops nestled in your protective hands while the earth slumbers.” I continued the hymn, crouching without opening my eyes. Pressing the seed into the soul with my thumb, I felt the magic dribble out of me. A little trickle turned quickly into a sharp downpour as the blessing rushed into the dirt. When I opened my eyes, the world spun.

The one part of the ritual I forgot…the lightheadedness.

Every year Leonardo kept a stool nestled in the garden bed behind him to sit back on when the blessing left his body. It was always done so routinely I’d forgotten thatI would need one.My world danced and I stumbled forward. Melrose squawked, rushing to catch me. I toppled into her warm embrace and took us quickly to the soft, albeit frostbitten, flowerbeds. Leaves and stems of dead brush crunched as I pinned my satyr to the earth beneath us. My hands felt like limp appendages I couldn’t control, but at least my palms were flat to the ground by her ears. Knees pressed into the dirt outside her knees—thankfully not rubbing her fancy fabric into the dead flora—I couldn’t move even if I wanted to…and I wasdesperateto move.

Looking down at Melrose, hair splayed across the fallen leaves, cheeks toasted mauve and eyes wide, I kept stopping at her lips. They weren’t puffy or crimson as I preferred them. Not until I dropped that last foot down to be stomach to stomach with her, our lips brushing. She kissed me back.Avaris preserve me.Even dizzy as a cat running around a slippery kitchen floor away from children, I was grounded by the simple truth that Melrose kissed me backjust as hard. She grabbed me by the cheeks and pulled me into her. The sound of leaves shifting was the background noise to our heavy breathing. Between hot kisses, we gulped down each other’s air. I pulled back from the kiss to swallow more than a single puff of air and couldn’t help the groan that escaped me. Her fingers found my hair and undid the delicate charms like a master seamstress with a less than helpful knot in her thread. I caught them glittering in the afternoon sun for a moment before my hair fell like a curtain around us. My platinum tendrils were a blanket of snow, cutting us off from the rest of the castle.

The only thing that existed was Melrose. Her knees shifted under me and I wove mine between hers. I pushed up the hem of her dress till I was forced to spare a dirty hand to the silk. I left a drop of soil and a dead leaf on her belly where I pooled the top of her skirt. The memory of the study was still fresh in my mind, I couldn’t help dusting off my palms overmy frock to clean them of soil. Ineededto touch her again. And when I broke our kiss again, to glance between us, I found the same glorious nest of curls completely uncovered.Of course they are! When would she have had time to fix that? When would she have grabbed a pair of small clothes?

I whisked her away from the cathedral so swiftly, it hadn’t even occurred to me.

“My fingers are a little dirty,” I chuckled against her damp lips, stealing another lazy kiss from her.

“I know that mouth of yours is cleaner than soap,” she retorted, wicked sparkle in her eyes.

“My thoughts exactly, though, you’ll need to be quiet. Make any trouble here and…” I trailed off as she kissed me again. The touch of our lips grew grittier, teeth clinking together and tongues tangled. I got ahold of her bottom lip in my teeth, pulling down on it till I popped off with a light smack. “There will be consequences.”

“From you or the crown?” she panted.

I let out a strangled, raspy sound as I confessed, “What I would give to be the one spanking you, Melrose.”