The Girl with the Fire Heart
Chapter 19

He looks back over at Brielle and Callie and sees them watching Valentina with awe and fear. It seems they did witness her take down an entire pillar just to get away from everyone. Movement from behind the girls captures his attention and he sees who he assumes to be the boy with the marble heart advancing towards them.

He moves with the stealth and grace he's perfected over the years and unleashes a wave of water to stop the boy from taking another step towards Jonah's home. His fury rages inside of him, making the wave grow higher even as he turns to face everyone standing in front of Jonah's home.

He sees Valentina staring at the girls with even more fury than he's exhibited in a lifetime of anger. If he has an icy glare, hers is a blaze that would make even the bravest of men burn to ashes.

She walks slowly towards Brielle and Callie like a predator stalking its prey. Neither girl moves, out of fear or nervous anticipation, Damon can't be sure. But when Valentina is close enough to them, he knows then it is fear, for she turns her blazing eyes on each girl as she whispers what is sure to be a daunting threat. She spins on her heel and strides to the house without a backwards glance.

Damon breathes a sigh of relief when she is behind closed doors and allows the water to fall, using his power to redirect the water to the shepherd’s fields and to the watering holes and troughs of all the animals before shrinking the remaining bit into a puddle.

He turns to see the boy with the marble heart still frozen in place even after Damon's display of power. He shakes his head and moves towards the shepherd’s home, only stopping once to look at Valentina's friends. Their skin is pale and their eyes wide, but he has no sympathy for them.

He continues his trek to the shepherd’s home, ushering all four parents inside. Before he can step over the threshold of Jonah's home, a voice calls out to him.

“Hey!” Damon turns to replace the boy with the marble heart standing a few feet away.

Damon didn't realize this boy followed him but now it's too late to send him away, or to threaten him to leave Jonah's family as well as his own, alone.

Damon cocks his head to the side, signaling for the boy to say whatever he it is he has to say.

“She’s too good for you, you know,” the boy with the marble heart says.

“I do,” is Damon's only reply.

“Then maybe you should do us all a favor and leave her alone,” the boy with the marble heart says.

Damon chuckles unironically. He knows the village people don't appreciate his relationship with Valentina, mostly because it means he remains unavailable for the other single girls in the village. But something Valentina said finally clicks.

Valentina said he recognized her. She said he was one of the few schoolkids who had actually been nice to her. She said he knew exactly where to replace her in the crowd of people watching the fight.

Understanding washes over him like a bucket of ice cold water. This boy is hoping to declare his intentions for Valentina and Damon is the one standing in his way. It dawns on him, then, that the Brielle and Callie think all he is to her is a mentor, not a man in love with her.

He realizes, with sudden clarity, that the girls have made a huge miscalculation. Because of the boy's youthful kindness to Valentina, the boy with the marble heart feels entitled to her hand. Damon won't let this boy get the chance, not as long as Valentins will have him.

Damon speaks without hesitation.

“She is betrothed to me and I to her. I don't plan on leaving her alone for as long as she will have me,” Damon says, masking his outrage with disinterest.

Then, before the boy with the marble heart can reply, Damon steps over the threshold into the house and shuts the door firmly behind him.

Valentina is furious. She has never had a reason to distrust her friends. She has never had a reason to believe they could deceive her so brazenly and she still can't understand why. She knows that somehow, the boy with the marble heart is involved, maybe even the root of it all but it hurts her head to think of all the possibilities.

After coming inside, she went immediately to her room, hoping to calm down enough so she doesn't set anything on fire. She hears a knock on her door and the hinges on it creaking. She looks briefly to the door and sees Damon leaning against the door frame just watching her.

“Breathe,” comes Damon instruction.

“I’m trying,” Valentina snaps.

“Stop clenching your hands. Just let your element settle on its own,” he tells her patiently.

She does as he says. She let her fists unfurl, then takes a deep breath in. She breathes out and redirects her thoughts from her distress to her body's responses. She feels the fire in her necklace start to shrink back. She feels Damon's cool breeze rushing over her. Her skin, once hot, sticky and slick with sweat, now feels cool and dry, the effects of the sweat drying making her skin tighten.

She feels it in her hands first. The way the surge of power slowly dissipates from a throb to a slight pressure and then nothing in the palm of her hands. Then she feels it in her necklace and heart. The flames that were pressing against the seams of the lock reduce to a manageable presence, a simple burning flame. The day was chaotic and she is sure, now more than ever, that leaving for a few days even to attend a ceremony she has no interest in is the best thing for her. She releases the last breath she's holding, opening her eyes and making her way to the door to spend time with their parents, a welcome and temporary distraction if there ever was one.