Midwinter Fire by SJ Sanders

Winter was a time haunted with darkness and inhabited by dangers seen and unseen, creatures that would consume the light and devour the living. And on the longest night these dangers were even closer and more powerful, threatening to overwhelm the darkest towns and villages, and catch the vulnerable out on the darkest streets. In most towns, mages and townspeople alike worked together to keep the streets and houses lit with firelight and the luminance of a cheerful spirit. That was not the case in Albanthy.
The mage of Albanthy was nothing short of a miser, drawing his high fees and giving as little as possible in turn. As the mage’s employee, and promised apprentice should her work impress him, Ember Feuer was running out of all hope, her own spirit dwindling and as meager as the small flames she lit night after night on her spirit lantern. The call of the creatures hidden in the dark was a lure that was getting stronger and stronger, and she was beginning to fear that she wouldn’t be able to resist it for much longer until a flare of her lamp dropped a most unlikely being into her home.
An elemental. A salamander. A horned male with ruby scales and dressed in a festive burgundy as if attending one of the midwinter parties that used to light up the town. A male with a plan to save her and her little town—if only they can rekindle the spark of warmth and hope. Even if they must haunt the town’s mage to accomplish it.