Page 20 of A Courage of the Chosen

“No,” Callahan responds firmly but not rudely, drawing her attention.

She lowers into a curtsey, dipping her head as the rest of the staff do the same and usher out the door, she’s the last to leave, tugging the heaving wood shut as she goes.

The moment it closes behind her, Callahan is on me.

He cups my face in his hands and brings my mouth to his.

The kiss isn’t gentle. It’s desperate and raw. A clash of heat and teeth and tongues. His beard scratches against my skin, and I welcome the burn, vowing to never take the feel of it for granted again.

“When I woke and you weren’t there, I thought he’d . . . I thought I’d lost you.” The broken confession bounces around in my head as I fist his shirt and pull him tighter to me without breaking our physical connection.

Hearing him in my mind again is like sinking into a hot bath with aching muscles, undoing knots that didn’t exist until the second they’re soothed.

I fight so hard to keep Tavish away, but letting Cal in is as easy as breathing.

“He’ll never take me from you again. I had to come here,” I reply.

Callahan pulls away and pants into the space between us. “I know.” His voice is ragged with the same need that’s setting my body on fire. “Brodie explained where you’d gone. I wasn’t happy you left without me, but I get it.”

“Do you not remember talking to me while the healers worked on you?” I ask.

Callahan had flitted in and out of consciousness, and the times he was awake were filled with pained grunts and curses as the poison was drawn from him.

He shakes his head. “It’s a bit of a blur. All I really remember is the fire in my veins when he got me with that knife.”

I brace against the memory of it. The flash of silver and shadow as Tavish pierced Callahan with the same blade that cut me open so many times. The blade that ended Granny’s life, too.

My heart picks up in my chest and Callahan holds me tighter. “I’m here. We’re safe,” he soothes. Tavish was too close to taking someone else from me.

I run my fingers through the silky strands of his hair as his forehead rests against mine.

“Dhia, I’ve missed you, Cal,” I breathe, studying his face with renewed appreciation.

His eyelids shut me off from the way his steely depths burn for me. “And I’ve missed hearing you call me that.”

He kisses me again. This time softer and slower as we explore each other. Things between us are so new, and there’s still a part of me that’s holding back after everything I’ve been through. Callahan has shown me over and over again that I’m safe with him, and that my heart might be safe with him too. But in the meantime, I know he’ll take whatever I’m prepared to give.

I’m the first to pull away this time, laughing as my stomach rumbles loudly enough to ruin the tender moment.

Callahan’s gray eyes twinkle with mirth as he looks down at me and strokes a loose strand of hair away from my face. “Sit. Eat. Then you can tell me everything that’s happened.”

Conversation is minimal and light as we consume the meal of chicken in a creamy sauce, with potatoes and steamed vegetables, followed by a platter of fruit.

I sit at the head of the table with Callahan to my right, his knee pushed up against mine as he feeds me the last strawberry.

His eyes rage as my lips wrap around it, my tongue dancing along his fingertips as I take it into my mouth.

He growls. “Later.” The single word is filled with such delicious promise that it shivers down into my belly. “Tell me what happened first. Brodie told me some of it, but I want to hear it from you.”

I take a sip of the sparkling wine that’s quickly become my favorite drink here in Elfayne, the food we’ve just eaten churning in my stomach at knowing everything is about to change when he learns what happened.

With each sentence I utter, Callahan becomes more rigid, his hands fisting on the table.

I near the part of the story I haven’t yet had the nerve to speak out loud. The truth that I’ve hidden from, and been able to dodge thanks to the council consuming my thoughts.

My mouth opens and closes as I try to summarize those final moments. How Tavish’s darkness felt as it seeped into my veins, aiming straight for where my magic lives. The gleam in his eyes as he scooped the Craobh Beatha off the floor and it didn’t kill him.

“What is it, Elsie?” Callahan asks, reaching for me.