Page 101 of The Ruins of the Heartless Fae

She hesitated between Blár and Magni. She didn’t want to imagine hoisting herself up onto Blár, his face between her thighs and his hands gripping her thighs to keep her in place. Heat crept up her neck and cheeks and highlighted her ears with a blooming red.She didn’t want that—shedefinitelydidn’t want that.

“I-I was thinking Truda—” Kolfinna started.

“No way.” Truda raised an eyebrow like she was insane. “I can’t do that. And besides, I don’t think I’m tall enough either.”

Blár looked amused, and Kolfinna’s face grew redder. He jabbed a thumb at Magni. “Me or him, which is it?”

“I’ll take”—she licked her lips, turning to the wall and then back at the two of them—“Magni.”

Blár’s eyebrow rose—and Kolfinna could’veswornshe saw a hint of disappointment flickering in those intense blue eyes—but he didn’t protest, while Magni did a double take. He didn’t exactly look thrilled at the idea of it, but he kneeled to the floor nonetheless. Kolfinna hesitated before climbing over his back and sitting on his shoulders. The room shifted when he rose up and she gripped onto his shoulders tightly as they both swayed for a moment, but he found his balance and she loosened her talon-like grip on him.

When they reached the wall, Kolfinna placed her hands over the runes and closed her eyes. She imagined her mana constricting the words like a snake wrapping around its prey. She squeezed the life out of the runes, her mana pulsing with her thoughts. Her fingernails dug into the stones.

But nothing happened.

She tried again, with no results.

“It’s not working,” she growled.

“Try harder,” Magni said. “We need you to succeed.”

Her lips thinned into a flat line as she glanced down at Magni. He didn’t say it out loud like Truda, but she could feel it. He trusted her. They all did. It was so bizarre to have humans trusting her. She should’ve been their enemy.

Kolfinna raised her chin and dug her nail into one of the runes. She didn’t need to touch it, but she wanted to feel the rune and the wall it was inscribed on. She wanted to uproot it, make it disappear. She ran her hand over the stones, but even as she chipped away at the wall, the runes remained. It was as she thought: the runes would remain even if the wall crumbled.

Her hand paused on the single rune that readno. She wasn’t able to break the whole sentence, but what if she just erased this single rune? It would take much less effort. At least she hoped so.

She placed her hands over the single rune and stared at it, imagining it disappearing beneath her fingers. Mana pooled out of her hands and covered the rune like a body of water before she honed it around the word, imagining her mana crashing into it like an angry, dangerous wave. It crashed against the rune, over and over like a relentless storm. She could feel her mana unspooling and draining faster than ever, but she didn’t stop.

To her amazement, the rune crumbled beneath her hands. Kolfinna threw her arms up excitedly. “Yes—”

She swallowed a yelp when Magni stumbled forward. He cursed and almost smashed his face against the stone wall.

“Sorry!” she said after he found his balance again. She still swayed atop his shoulders and couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear.

The wall now readmagic, instead ofno magic.

She glanced down at the party, and her eyes met with Blár’s. Her breath stole away from her at the way he looked at her. Like he was so proud of her. And there was somethingmorein his ice-blue eyes, something that told herhewanted to be the one holding her up.

The air between them felt like charged energy.

“Well?” Magni ripped her attention away. “Is it done?”

Kolfinna answered by flicking her wrist, forcing the stones in the doorway to break apart. The stones pulled away with ease, creating an open doorway.

“You did it!” Truda clapped her hands excitedly.

A grin broke out on Blár’s face. “Good job,” he said. “I knew you could do it.”

Magni helped Kolfinna down to her feet and she didn’t miss the relief on his face.

She stepped through the hole. “Now let’s go.”

25

“Doany of you actually know the way?” Kolfinna asked after they entered another dormitory wing in the ruins. They had been walking for over an hour, scouring the halls for Revna and Mímir, but they couldn’t find them. And they were utterly lost.

“I was unconscious when we were brought into that room.” Blár kicked down another door and peeked inside before moving to the next. “For all I know, we could be in a different castle altogether. I have no clue.”

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