The Girl with the Fire Heart

The next day, the shepherd’s daughter is the first to wake up. She leaves as quietly as she can, hoping to avoid her parents and the explanation that she is going to confront the nobleman’s son. The sun is just beginning to rise and she can see some of the other farmers starting their day. She walks through the village, down every road she can remember seeing him since his arrival but she can't seem to find him anywhere. Finally, she sees him seated on a bench outside the palace gates.

He is sitting by the practice fields where the stablemen train the princesses and princes daily on horse riding. She wonders, rather briefly, why she found him here of all places, but she pushes those thoughts aside.

She approaches him slowly, hoping he doesn't see her coming, giving her the advantage she needs to confront him. But she stops when she feels the same breeze from last night. She feels another tug in her chest, another pull in her necklace. She looks down before remembering she won't be able to see what's happening in her necklace with the steel cage locked around it.

When she looks up again, she sees Damon staring at her. This time, he isn't surprised. He gestures to the seat beside him, fully expecting her to turn and run just as he did from her house the night before.

Truthfully, he isn't sure why he ran. The shock of having felt someone else’s heart like the heat he felt from her had never happened before. He was used to being in tune with the sound of footsteps and certain pitches of laughter. He had gotten exceptionally good at distinguishing between voices but never had he felt the heat of another person as if their heart was sending him a signal.

When he ran from the barn door, he snuck back into the house only to find his father, Joaquin, sitting on his bed. His father wasn’t angry or even a little bit mad at his disappearance. He was mostly curious where he went. When Damon explained where he had gone, why he had snuck out and what had happened to him at the shepherd’s barn, the Joaquin escorted his son to the library, pensive the whole way there.

They spent hours pouring over various books and journals, studies over what Damon's experience meant with the shepherd’s daughter. What they discovered was unusual. Only those whose hearts were made of the rarest elements could experience such physical responses to one another. However, other hearts, such as the one the shepherd's daughter wore around her necklace, could never experience this.

Joaquin and Damon agreed that the shepherd's daughter's steel heart was a farce and her true heart was a rare element. The men suspected that she truly was the girl with the fire heart. Neither of the two men could be sure, least of all the nobleman, but they both knew that she may not be what she presented herself as.

The nobleman instructed his son to figure out what her heart was really made out of. Maybe the stories they had heard of the girl with the heart of fire were false, but that didn’t mean they had not discovered something greater in the shepherd’s daughter.

And so here they are. The shepherd’s daughter standing mere feet away from the nobleman’s son by sheer luck. The shepherd’s daughter cautiously makes her way to the nobleman’s son and sits beside him.

They sit in silence for a long while. They stare at the royal horse trainers and horses, watch as the princesses and princes practice and perform, unaware that the two rarest and most powerful people are their audience.

The shepherd's daughter introduces herself as Valentina. Damon introduces himself in turn. He apologizes to Valentina. He explains that he had not meant to be sneaking around her family's property. Ever since he arrived to this kingdom, people have been fawning over him, parading him around, making him feel like some kind of kingdom hero. He had been seeking a few moments of solitude. He says that he simply wanted to be alone.

Valentina surprises herself by saying that she understands. Damon looks over at her and asks her what she means. She gives no reply. He waits a few more minutes, hoping if he lets the silence stretch on long enough, she'll give in and say more. She doesn't. So he continues.

He tells her that he stumbled upon her accidentally. He knew about the shepherd and his farm, of course, but he did not know that it would be her family’s farm. He admits that he finds her more beautiful than all the women he has ever seen.

He blushes at his confession and sneaks a glance over at Valentina. Her smooth jaw appears, for a moment, sharper than any blade as she stares into the field with flatly. The only tell he has that she is affected by what he said is the slight blush that dusts her cheeks. Nothing more, nothing less.

Damon breathes a sigh of relief before telling Valentina the real reason he had beckoned her to sit with him when she found him. He tells her about the strange physical reaction he had towards her. He tells her about the studies and the research. He tells her about the speculation that maybe her steel heart is manmade, an object to cover what is underneath.

By the time Damon realizes he has misspoken, it is too late. Valentina rises to her feet, angry that he dare accuse her of having an untrue heart. He tries to make amends, he tries to persuade her that isn't what he meant. But the damage has been done. She storms away from him, hellbent on never speaking to him again.