Page 17 of The Ruins of the Heartless Fae

Fenris reached forward for his teacup, calmly stared into the reflection, and took a sip. His voice was clear and low. “If any of you are unsure if you want to take this mission, you’re free to go. Unlike your other missions and duties, this is purely voluntary. I won’t force you to go somewhere you don’t want to go.” He placed the teacup back on the table, where it clinked against the glass surface. “I wasn’t going to say anything since it doesn’t matter too much, but the military got back to me with a list of their soldiers who will be joining us on this mission. And, like Mímir said, a black rank will be joining us.”

Kolfinna’s voice sharpened when she spoke. “Who?”

Fenris’s silver eyes gleamed cruelly as he met her gaze. “Blár Vilulf.”

“No.” Kolfinna sprang to her feet as the memory of his wintry clutches whispered against her right leg. “You didn’t tell me—”

“I received the list this morning, so it’s not like I’m hiding anything from any of you.” Fenris turned to the rest of the room. “I know some of you have bad experiences with him, so I want you to put your differences aside and behave.”

Kolfinna sank into the couch, her voice barely a whisper as she fought to steady her erratic breathing. “I can’t work with him.”

Fenris held her gaze unflinchingly, and she became increasingly aware of everyone’s gazes from her peripheral vision. Eyfura watched her empathetically, Nollar wore a curious expression, Magni looked irritated, and Mímir had paused from nervously sifting through his notes to stare at her.

“You’ll have to.” Fenris folded his hands together. The inflection of his voice suggested there was no room for argument.

Kolfinna swallowed the bile rising up her throat. “You never told me any of this.”

“It changes nothing.”

“It changeseverything.” Kolfinna cupped her knees with trembling hands and focused in on Fenris, trying to plead with him with large eyes, but he seemed unaffected by her plight. Not a single red hair on his head was out of place, while she felt like she was coming undone from the seams. “I can’t work with him.” Hearing his name alone sent razors down her spine. There was no way she could work with him and be in close proximity to such a wicked monster.

“Are you scared of Blár Vilulf?” It was Magni who asked, his dark brown brows raised in question. He said it as if he couldn’t believe it. As if she was childish to fear him. To treat him like the boogeyman.

But there was no way she was going to admit she had recurring nightmares of Blár trying to kill her almost every night, or that her body wasn’t one hundred percent healed because of him. She had a niggling suspicion that if they met again, he would finish where he left off. That he would freeze the blood in her veins and carve her flesh with his ice.

Fenris watched her carefully. “He won’t hurt you.”

“Also,” Mímir jumped in, “Blár Vilulf isn’t a member of the Hunter’s Association, if that makes you feel any better. Apparently, he doesn’t like doing extra work outside of the military.”

It was as reassuring as hearing she wouldn’t fall to her death while walking on a tightrope between two mountains.

Mímir handed the papers to the person on his left. “Please take one and pass this to the person beside you.”

Slowly, the papers were passed around the room. When Kolfinna got one, a sketch of an elaborate castle with many attached buildings inside a mountain sprawled over the paper. The separate buildings, or wings of the castle, were attached by suspended bridges.

“This is a drawing of the ruins. As you can see here”—he held up the sketch and pointed to the base of the mountain separate from the castle—“the first entrance is actually just a stone archway that leads to stairs attached to the mountain. Eventually, you reach an entrance that takes you inside the mountain. But here’s the thing, the inside of the mountain is cored, so you’re not going into a rocky, cavernous area. The mountain seems to serve as ashieldfor the castle ruins to keep them hidden. We’ve been able to get inside the mountain, to the bridge that leads to the castle, but everyone who has passed through the entrance doors of the ruins has never returned.”

An ominous chill reverberated through her bones and she cast a quick glance at the room to see if everyone else felt the same; surprisingly, the Royal Guards shared her unease. Eyfura chewed on her lower lip as she inspected the paper, Nollar frowned deeply, and the others exchanged uncomfortable looks.

Kolfinna turned the paper over to find a scrawl of lines, symbols, and squares jumbled together in black ink. She studied the squiggles, trying to figure out what it was. Did it represent something?

“On the back of the sheet, you’ll see the runes that are written on the front doors,” Mímir said and the flaps of paper crinkling filled the air soon after. “We’re hopeful that Kolfinna will be able to read them.”

A jolt of panic stiffened Kolfinna’s spine as everyone turned to her expectantly. These were runes? They looked like chicken scrawls! She licked her lips and glanced at the scribbles once more. The more she stared, the more it didn’t make sense.

“Well?” Fenris asked. “Can you read them?”

She stared at the runes harder, her hands turning clammy. If she couldn’t read them, didn’t that make her pretty useless in the mission? Would they kill her if they realized she couldn’t tell what they were?

Fenris noticed her hesitation and said, “I’m sure they’ll look different in person. Try to decipher them in your free time.”

Her face caught on fire and she nodded.

“You’ll all be leaving next week.” Fenris rose to his feet. “Prepare what you can during that time. If anyone wants to pull out of this mission, let me know as soon as possible. That’s all.”

Kolfinna continued to stare at the letters, but the more she stared, the more they didn’t make sense. Her stomach dropped and a numbing frost spread through her fingers, chest, and then her whole body until she buzzed with the biting cold. If she couldn’t figure this out, what did that mean for her?

5

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