Page 71 of A Kiss of Flame

Levian shook her head, her hands trembling with anger. “He knew exactly what he was doing!” she shot back. “He always knows exactly what he’s doing!” She stood and began pacing the small kitchen. Trislana stood too, her expression pained.

“Your father is many things—but I don’t believe he would have sent you into harm willingly. Whatever his reasons, they are never so simple.”

Levian glared at her mother. “Do not defend him,” she spat. “Not after everything he did to you—to both of us!”

Trislana’s face crumpled, and guilt tore through Levian. She hated this—hated that her mother would stand up for Merlin even now. “I hate him,” she whispered with fury and pain. “For everything he did to us. To you.”

Her mother tentatively came closer, her voice a soft murmur. “I know, my darling. I only wish it didn’t consume so much of your heart.”

Levian recoiled at her mother’s words, and she wasn’t sure exactly why, but tears began to stream down her face. Her mother wrapped her in her arms, and Levian wanted to pull away like a feral animal, but her mother only hugged her tighter. Levian soon went limp and let the tears come against her mother’s shoulder, her fury and grief pouring out of her like a flowing waterfall. When her tears finally calmed, she looked up into her mother’s soft, golden gaze.

“Do you regret it? Running away with him?” Levian asked, her voice cracking. Her mother had left the sanctuary of the Veil for Merlin—abandoning everything.

Her mother sighed, shaking her head. “No.” Levian’s stomach twisted.

“Even though he shattered your heart? Even though he left us?”

Trislana’s eyes held the same glimmer of old heartache that had always been there. “It was the path I chose, and I won’t regret choosing the path of love,” her mother replied softly. “Even if it ended in heartbreak.” Levian scoffed with bitterness.

Her mother sighed and explained, “I met Merlin when he was just a young mage. He was charismatic, charming, and handsome. Iathana, who was new to her role as Willow Mother, was impressed by his skill and desire to learn. She invited him into the Veil under very strict rules. I worked in the Athenaeum and often brought him the scrolls and tomes he requested. His passion for learning was intoxicating. He wanted to understand our ways and customs, so I began bringing him into the wood to share what it meant to be a dryad, to feel the bond we held with the forest and the earth.”

Trislana smirked at the memory. “When the day came for him to leave the Veil, we did not say goodbye because we both knew we would meet again. Years passed, and I ventured out beyond the Veil with Iathana and Fenji to meet with the Court of the Spring Faeries. Merlin was there, serving as Ambassador for the Council of Mages. We found each other, and it was as if we had never been apart. He was older and wiser, but still the same man I’d given parts of my heart to years before.”

Levian hung her head, her voice barely a whisper. “So you ran away with him.”

Her mother nodded. “He could not return to the Veil with me, so I had to choose. To return home without him or stay and follow my heart.”

Trislana had given up her whole world for Merlin. She made it sound so romantic, but Levian knew it had been a choice fraught with torment. The Veil of the White Wood was sacred, and no outsiders were ever permitted for longer than a shortvisit. Levian also knew that when Trislana had reconnected with Merlin, Fenji, another dryad, had been courting her mother, and Iathana had been keen for the match. They would have been good together. But Merlin had already claimed her mother’s heart. So she’d left everything—her life, home, family—all to be with him and plunge into the unknown.

“How can you not hate him?” Levian asked, truly not able to comprehend it.

“I loved him,” Trislana said again, her voice tender. “I gave him my heart, and he gave me you. His dark path had nothing to do with either of us. He could have taken you, and I would have been powerless to stop him. But he didn’t.” Levian let out a shuddering breath. “I will never regret loving Merlin,” her mother made clear. “But my darling, you cannot protect yourself from love because you fear repeating our story. Your dragon is not Merlin.”

Levian’s heart clenched painfully, her mother’s words piercing through her walls like sharp spears. She knew Merlin and Barith were different, but her fear ran deep. As a girl, the seed had taken root in Levian’s heart, and it thrummed to life every time her feelings were stirred, suffocating the love that tempted her like a creeping vine. The love she felt for Barith had somehow found its way into her heart despite all of it.

“I’m afraid,” she confessed, her voice cracking. “I’m afraid to lose him—to lose myself.”

Trislana took Levian’s hands and squeezed them. “If you were not afraid, it wouldn’t be real love,” she gently encouraged her.

Levian knew her mother was right, but her heart was still heavy. She had slowly fallen in love with Barith without realizing it, and now that love threatened to overwhelm her. “I can’t make him choose between me and his family,” she whispered. “If heleft the horde, they’d never take him back, and I can’t—I just can’t do it.”

Barith’s path was clear—he had a duty to his family and their legacy that had nothing to do with Levian. Trislana brushed Levian’s curls back over her shoulder.

“Don’t give up hope,” her mother said softly. “You are as clever as your father. If anyone can find a way, it’s you. You are alsomydaughter. When you love, you love with your whole heart—And when you want something, nothing can stop you.”

Levian’s heart gave a hopeful thump, and for once, she didn’t push it away. She had thought it was hopeless to love Barith and hadn’t wanted to make him choose.

I cannae fight for this on my own.

The dragon’s words thrummed through her. He was right. He’d fought for and loved her even when she hadn’t realized, keeping his desires quiet all because he’d not wanted to ruin their friendship. All because he’d known how she would react.

Not long ago, Levian would have leaned into her fears and ran. She’d done it only a few days before when she’d left Barith at Ember Hall with nothing but a note to explain herself. Levian had thought she couldn’t love like other creatures, but she’d been wrong. She loved Barith deeply and hated that she was afraid and worried she didn’t deserve him.

Levian wanted to fight for Barith like he’d fought for her. And she didn’t want him to have to make the choice her mother had, either. “There has to be something I can do,” she told her mother with frustration, “but dragons aren’t so simple.”

She pondered for a moment before fiddling with a necklace. Her mother smiled at her affectionately. “I will brew tea, then,” Trislana offered. It’s what her mother always did when Levian was trying to mull a difficult problem.

“I’m going to have to win over the queen,” Levian thought aloud as her mother put the kettle on. She would stay for tea, butthe mage knew there was only one place where she could figure all of this out and devise a plan that might work.