Page 110 of The Ruins of the Heartless Fae

Blár released him and he fell to the floor among the rubble. He wiped his hand on his thigh as if he had touched something rotten. “Keep talking nonsense and I’ll freeze your mouth shut.”

Magni narrowed his eyes. “Who are you talking about? You can’t be talking about Eyfura.”

“She’s still alive! Revna didn’t want to kill her just yet, since she wanted to use the rest of her mana to feed the others.” Mímir shimmied his shoulders in an effort to free himself. “If you let me go, I’ll show you how to bring her back.”

Kolfinna slowly rose to her feet. Her foot brushed against one of the broken stone spears Revna had thrown at them in the battle, the sharp point of it dulled to a nub. The moonlight made Mímir’s eyes look crazy, his face surrounded by the remnants of their battle, but she grasped onto his words anyway.

Eyfura wasn’t dead? Now that he mentioned it, they hadn’t checked her vitals. She had been so still that Kolfinna had assumed she was dead. But if Revna hadn’t sucked all her mana and life force out, could she still be alive?

She ran to Eyfura and dropped to her knees. Even now, Eyfura looked too still to be alive. Her blond hair looked gray against the moonlight, and her pale skin was white and bloodless. Kolfinna pressed two trembling fingers against her throat and tried to feel a heartbeat.

Thump. Thump.

She gasped.

It was faint, but it was there.

Kolfinna placed both hands on Eyfura’s chest so she could feel her mana more closely and more easily. For a moment, she couldn’t feel anything, as if she was sifting through air, but then she caught a tiny dreg of energy.

Eyfura is alive.

“He’s right,” Kolfinna whispered, turning to the others. Tears pricked her eyes and she blinked away the tears. “She’s still alive.”

Truda looked unconvinced. “Are you … sure?”

Magni violently grabbed Mímir by the hair and yanked him into a half-sitting position, eyes ablaze with rage. “How do we bring her back?”

“Free me—”

Fire sputtered from Magni’s free hand and he brought it close to Mímir’s face. “How do we bring her back?” he repeated. “You’re not in any position to give us orders.”

“Then kill me.” Mímir body was shaking like a leaf, but his voice was resolute. “Because I’m not talking until you free me.”

“He doesn’t have to.” Kolfinna clenched her hands to keep from quivering. “I think I know what I have to do.”

Mímir gaped at her. “How could you possibly know what to do? You don’t know anything!” He turned to the others wildly. “I can help her if you free me!”

Blár ignored him and kneeled beside Kolfinna in front of Eyfura. “What do you have to do?”

If Revna had been able to drain Eyfura’s mana and life force, didn’t that mean it was also possible for Kolfinna to do the same andtransferlife force? She had been able to use Blár’s mana, but maybe she could also manipulate life force like Revna did?

“I think … I think I can manipulate her life force,” she said as she turned to Blár. “Remember when I used your mana for those runes? Maybe I can do something similar, like transfer mana into her. Or … I’m not sure, but I have to try.”

“But none of us have any mana left,” he said with an arched brow.

“One of us does,” she said, just as everyone turned to Mímir.

Mímir gasped as the implication settled in; he shook his head and scooted away from them. “N-No! You can’t do that to me!”

“We can do whatever we want, scum,” Magni hissed, grabbing him by the hair and throwing him at Kolfinna’s feet. His emerald eyes flashed with emotion at Kolfinna. “Bring her back. Please.”

Life force and mana were practically interchangeable, but so different at the same time. Mana was energy, as was life force, but when mana became depleted, it didn’t necessarily mean the body died. The body would replenish that mana with time. But life force was the energy that kept a person alive, and that couldn’t replenish itself. Stripping away that mana was like peeling back skin to reveal flesh underneath. Could Kolfinna manipulate that life force from other people? Drain enough mana to tap into the life force? Or search for the life force beneath all that mana?

She had to try.

Mímir shouted at her to stop and tried kicking her, but it was no use. She placed her hand on Mímir’s forehead and shoved it down to the floor, while placing her other hand on Eyfura’s heart. She closed her eyes to concentrate and found Eyfura’s tiny flake of life force. She then searched for Mímir’s mana and found it easily; it was larger and like a calm, steady current of water. She pulled on that current, weaving it between her fingers.

His body went rigid when she took hold of his mana. “S-Stop!”

---