Page 50

I don't care. I love it.

Tonight, it's even more beautiful. The storm is finally gone. The clouds have all blown away, and the sky overhead is clear and black and full of so many stars I forget to blink. Beyond the fence, the mountains glitter silver under the starlight.

"What are we doing out here?" I ask.

"Patience," Rhydian says.

"I'm not good at patience."

"We've noticed," Zarek says.

He gives Rhydian a small nod. Rhydian slips away around the side of the cabin, out of sight.

He's back almost immediately. So fast I'm not sure he did anything at all.

"What did you..."

The first firework explodes overhead. Gold. Brilliant, blazing gold, bursting across the sky and raining down in glittering sparks.

I gasp. Then another one goes off. Crimson. Then silver. Then copper, so bright it lights up the snow for miles.

"How did you do this?" I ask, spinning around to look at the three of them. "We're in the middle of nowhere! Where did you even get fireworks?"

Rhydian just grins. "We have our ways."

They keep going. Bigger and bigger. Bursts of light so huge they fill half the sky. And then one explodes in the shape of a dragon. A huge golden dragon, wings spread wide across the stars.

Then a silver one. Then a crimson one.

Dragons. The symbol of royalty. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a little voice wonders why three lords would choose dragons.

I don't listen to it. I'm far too happy.

Throwing my arms around Zarek, then Rhydian, then Kaelen, I hug each of them so hard I hear Rhydian wheeze.

"Thank you," I tell them. "Thank you, thank you. This is the most wonderful solstice of my whole life."

Between the three of them in the snowy garden, I tip my head back and watch the sky light up in gold and silver and crimson. The fireworks are so enormous they must be visible for miles. From every mountaintop. From every valley.

All I want is for this night to never end.

When the last spark finally fades from the sky, we go back inside, laughing and stamping our feet and brushing snow off each other's shoulders. The men hang up their cloaks and start drifting toward the fire.

I don't.

My heart is pounding so hard I can hear it. Because tonight made something very clear. I don't want to leave them. Not to my empty cottage. Not to my friend's house.

Not anywhere they're not.

Zarek's quiet strength and how he looks at me when he thinks no one's watching. That's what I want. Rhydian's laughter and his terrible jokes and his head in my lap by the fire. Kaelen's careful hands and his gruff, secret tenderness.

All three of them.

And not just because of my heat. Not just because my body craves their touch.

I'm falling in love with them.

Maybe I already have.