“Blue,” Adele stuttered, through chattering teeth, “Really. Let me light the fire.”
“No, no, I can do it,” Blue fixed the lifeless wood with a furious glare. “I know how to start a fire.”
“Yes, Blue, but we want one in the fireplace, that being the place for fires, rather than burning down the entire wooden cabin.”
Blue scowled. “I told you, I can do it!”
“Bluebird Last, for god’s sake, give me the matches!”
Blue threw them at her with a sigh. “You won’t get it to start.”
“We’ll see,” Adele dropped to her knees on the hearthrug. “Now…if you just…Blue, do you even know the first thing about fires?”
“Yes,” Blue said, confidently. “They burn.”
Adele rolled her eyes. “What did I ever see in you?”
“My good looks, my sense of humour and my utter inability to obey the rules,” Blue answered, promptly. “You will soon realise that I am perfect for you.”
The fire blazed into life, a merry glow sending shadows dancing around the cabin. Adele turned back to Blue with a look.
“Well done,” Blue gave her a bright smile. “Tricky stuff, fire. Temperamental. It probably only obeys girls.”
Adele laughed, springing up onto the sofa and drawing her knees under her chin.
“Well, I’ve lit the fire so you can go and make me hot chocolate with fifteen marshmallows.”
“Fifteen!” Blue stared. “And you’re not the size of a house?”
“We only have the fingernail-sized ones,” Adele explained. “Now go! No, don’t. On second thoughts, I’ll make myself a hot chocolate. I don’t trust you with a kettle.”
“I can use a kettle!” Blue cried, indignantly.
“It’s not an electric one,” Adele reminded him, doubtfully. “You have to turn the hob on. And it will scream.”
Blue stood up with the righteous fury of an insulted prince. “Your highness, I shall make you your hot chocolate, come hell or high water. I shall brave the traumas of a screaming kettle for you and face the monstrous beast of the twisty dial thing that turns the hob on. Yet I shall vanquish all enemies and return with a drink made a cocoa powder and topped with precisely fifteen unnecessarily-small lumps of sugary goo.”
He swept out of the room, holding himself like a king in state. Adele smiled after him, amused despite herself. She had forgotten how much fun teasing Blue could be.
Celia lay back in her chair, kicking her feet up onto the table.
YOU ARE READING
The Necromancer Trilogy - Black Magic
FantasySophie Merith is going to destroy the world. The only way she can escape her fate? A stone from the lands of the dead and two obstinate boys whose duty is purely to the souls of the departed. With the Gatekeepers found, the countdown to Midwinter b...
