The Girl with the Fire Heart
Chapter 40

“How do you feel about a ride through the countryside?” Damon asks almost immediately after she sits down. She pauses as reaches for a boiled egg. Not wanting to seem as shocked as she feels, she continues reaching for the egg, places it on her plate and shifts in her seat slightly before responding to him.

“Is there nothing planned for today?” Valentina asks.

“Not that I am aware of. I just thought you might enjoy some time away from everyone, and that we could have a picnic today,” Damon says, a slight nervousness seeping into his tone.

He looks over at her to replace that her eyes are already locked on his. Damon is surprised to replace a small smile graces her full lips at his suggestion.

“I would love to go on a ride, and have a picnic,” she responds.

Damon feels the tension in his shoulders release for the second time this morning and he relaxes into his seat. The two resume eating their breakfast and drinking their coffee in comfortable silence. As soon as breakfast is over, Damon heads out to the stables to ensure the horses have been prepared and Mr. Brown meets him there to drop off the basket for the picnic. He guides the horses from the stables to the front of the house where Valentina stands, lightly bouncing on the balls of her feet, excitement evident in every feature and contour of her face and body.

They mount Grey and the other horse, Weather, taking off at a light pace to put distance between them and the house. They ride for hours, talking about anything they could think of, from their favorite way to make coffee to the best way to hustle in a marketplace. They laugh and joke, taking jabs at each other to see who can insult the other without too much offense. At some point, Damon realizes he is no match for Valentina's quick wit and instead chooses to challenge her to a race.

When the horses take off, Damon cheats and starts before he finishes the countdown but, as he has become accustomed to, he underestimates her and Valentina passes him in no time, pushing Grey harder and faster until at last, she makes it to the small creek in the distance faster than Weather could get there.

She dismounts, and he laughs, watching her dance and point and cheer at her own success of beating him in the horse race and Damon feels his heart begin to swell and his element responds to the overwhelming feelings he is having. While Valentina laughs wildly at her victory, Damon sets up the picnic, his nerves suddenly rushing over him at full force once again.

But instead of inspecting his work, Valentina merely sits, reaching for the lemonade that Mr. Brown packed away. Together, the two drink and eat pastries, sitting silently and watching the horses drink the water from the creek. After a long moment, Valentina speaks.

“How did you do it?” she asks. Damon swallows the lemonade he's drinking.

“Do what?” he asks back.

“How did you live like this? It just seems like so much pressure,” she says.

“It was. I think, in some ways, that it still is,” he says. “But with you around, it’s less difficult to get by.”

Valentina smiles at Damon slowly.

“I’m serious,” she says through an airy laugh.

“I am too,” he says to her. She looks over at him, her small smile dropping and her eyebrows furrowing as she looks at him questioningly.

“The first night we were here, the night of the Celebratory Ball, there was a moment where I felt like I was a kid again. There was all this pressure to be someone I wasn't, to perform and be cold and calculating, to not make a single mistake. I didn’t want to do something that would make me an outlier any more than I already was. But then, as we walked up those stairs, I looked over at you, and there was a moment of clarity. I wasn’t alone. Yes, the pressure to be someone I wasn’t was still there, but I didn’t actually have to be because you were right beside me, reminding of who I really was. Yes, I could be cold and calculating but I could still be the same man who is desperate for your affection without a single care in the world. Stepping into adulthood with the abilities that we have is no easy feat. But it feels manageable with you by my side and I imagine it feels the same way for you,” Damon says.

Valentina looks over at him, warmed by his confession. She can sense his vulnerability and honesty in every word he says. From the very first moment they spoke, he has always been honest with her. He has never lied or withheld the truth. Sitting here, she knows she has always been the one whose trepidations and hesitancies kept them apart, whose secrets and lies have stunted them from being together wholly and completely. Suddenly, the urge to tell him how she feels presses in on her. She feels it in the way the flames in her heart flare up. She feels it in the way her hands get heavy with the need to expel her element just a little.

The control Valentina usually has over her power disappears and her hand becomes increasingly warm by the second. She looks down to see a small heart being burned into the ground underneath them. What was once vibrant green grass is now a small bit of scorched earth. Damon follows Valentina's gaze and she is all too aware that her element unexpectedly has a mind of its own.

She wants to lift her hand, to silently command her element to subdue itself but she ignores the feeling, too engrossed in the way her hand spells out the words she feels pressing against the tip of her tongue. She can distantly hear Damon asking her what’s wrong, why she is using her fire to burn the ground beneath them when the day is bright and sunny, warm with a small breeze but she ignores him to look at what her element is spelling. She ignores him, mesmerized by her own confession.