Page 18 of The Ruins of the Heartless Fae

In the middleof the night, Kolfinna hesitantly sat up on her bed in the lilac room, the blanket falling around her hips. She needed to run as far away as possible. No one had told her that Blár Vilulf would be on the mission with her. She would rather take her chances with Fenris chasing her to the ends of the world than be in Blár’s company. That wasn’t the only thing that bothered her—she realized at the meeting she had made a big mistake. She couldn’t be surrounded by those Royal Guards. If she became one of them, she’d have to endure their stares for the rest of her life. Not to mention that—just like that one guard had said—this Eventyrslot mission sounded suicidal.

There was always someone guarding her, so it wasn’t like she could waltz out the door and book it, so she turned her attention to the wall. It was made of stone, and she could bend stone.

She pressed a finger to the wall and closed her eyes. Her mana spread across the expanse of the wall, but she narrowed it down to a hole the size of her finger. She could shift the wall to make a giant hole for herself to walk through, but that would mean the pieces of the wall she shifted would be moved somewhere else, which usually meant it was pushed off the very ends of the wall. In a building like this, that meant the foundation would be ruined and it would stick out into the hallway or the outside of the building. That was the biggest way to alert everyone that she was up to something. Her only option was to pull a section of the wall out and place it into her room.

Her mana twirled around the deep inner workings of the stone and she carefully pulled a cylindrical piece out until it fell on her bed. Her heart thumped loudly in her ears and she waited for a noise—someone to yell at her about what she was doing—but nothing happened. She peeped through the hole. Bookshelves lined one side of the wall and there was a love seat in the middle of the room, a short tea table across from it. Moonlight filtered through a giant window on one side of the room. Mímir sat there, a stack of papers laid in front of him on the table as he flicked through them and a sharp dagger balanced on his lap. A single candle flickered beside him.

She lurched back, her breath caught in her throat. He didn’t seem to notice her, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t. She fumbled with the cylindrical stone and slid it back into the hole and adjusted it so the wallpaper lined correctly. She pressed her palm on it and fused it together so it wouldn’t look so clearly cut out, but if anyone looked close enough, they’d be able to see the circular cutout in the wallpaper.

On the opposite side of her room, she did the same thing with that wall, placed a finger on it and pulled a piece of it out so she could look through it. That room was different and appeared to be a storage room: there were stacks of boxes piled up in one corner, and a few lopsided and mismatched tables and chairs in the other. There was a smaller window at the far end of the room, which spilled speckled rays of moonlight onto the gleaming wooden floors. A smile stretched her face. Speckled light meant a tree was obscuring the window, and she could use the tree to guide her down.

It was perfect—almosttooperfect.

Hesitation stalled her from moving another step. What if … what if this was a set-up? But then again, the Royal Guards didn’t have a reason to set her up. It was too elaborate of a story to set her up for anything. If they didn’t need her, they could’ve just sentenced her to death immediately.

A movement in the room caught her attention and she held her breath as a guard she didn’t recognize entered the room and rummaged through a box. He grabbed a handful of red capes, folded them under his arm, and left.

Kolfinna couldn’t use that room to escape; if more Royal Guards came to get random items, she would be caught in no time.

She padded to the other wall of her four-walled room, the one opposite the door. She hadn’t wanted to use this wall to escape since there was a possibility guards were watching this side from outside—maybe waiting for her to pull a stunt like this. But this seemed to be the only chance she had now.

Kolfinna touched the wall with fingers dripping with mana. She pulled out a piece of the wall the size of her head. She held the heavy stone and poked her head through the hole. The wind blew against her gently, tousling the unkempt hairs that had pulled away from her braid. Trees and winding roads intertwined below her. No guards waited below and farther away she spotted a tall iron wrought gateway.

Sweat formed between her brows and her heart rate tripled. If she was caught, swarms of Royal Guards could capture her, and there would be no telling what would happen to her afterward. Since she was in the Royal Guard headquarters in the capital, there were bound to be strong Royal Guards here, stronger than her.And the military was nearby; what if a platoon of military soldiers went after her as well?

“You’ve made up your mind,” she whispered, placing the stone on the floor. She laid her hands on the cool stone wall and closed her eyes. Surely, staying was far more dangerous. Shecouldn’tstay.

She willed the wall to move, but her heart faltered.

Blár’s cold eyes came to mind. The freezing, cruel touch of his magic brushed her leg and she shuddered. No. This was the right decision.

The piece of stone pulled apart like soft bread; she piled it beside her feet as she pulled apart more pieces of the wall. She could’ve easily shoved a giant hole through the wall and made the stone fall to the ground below, or fall into her room, but that would attract too much attention. She was in the heart of the Royal Guards; it would take seconds for them to surround her.

When there was a gaping cavity large enough that she could comfortably pass through, she willed a giant branch of the tree below her to grow and stretch until it was under her feet. Kolfinna immediately hoisted herself on the branch and controlled the tree to pull herself down. She went slowly and made sure to avoid windows.

A gentle, warm breeze kissed her skin and the shadows of the starless night blanketed her descent. When her feet landed on the ground, she waved her hand and forced the tree’s branch to weave through its existing branches. Whenever her mana manipulated trees and plants to grow larger, taller, or wider, they would remain that way even after she was done using them. This created a problem when covertly trying to escape without leaving behind hints, but she figured it didn’t matter since they would find out she was gone by the morning.

Kolfinna slunk toward the gateway, always staying behind trees and looking over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being followed or watched. There were likely Royal Guards stationed all around the building.

Just as she inched closer to the gate, voices stopped her in her tracks. She dropped to her knees and pressed her back against a tree. The voices grew louder.

“I’m telling you, it’s dangerous.”

“I’ll be fine!”

Kolfinna’s eyebrows furrowed; she knew those voices. Poking her head out slowly, she recognized the petite Eyfura next to Nollar, who towered over her. Even in the night, his hair shone like pale gold.

They walked near her on the cobbled walkway and Kolfinna hugged the tree so tightly she was sure the ridges of the tree bark were imprinted onto her back.

“It’ll be big for my career,” Eyfura said. “The reward is too big to turn away and I might even be able to rise up in rank. You know how important this is for me.”

“It’s not as important as your life!” Nollar’s voice boomed.

“Shush!” Eyfura said before whispering, “I won’t die.”

Nollar scoffed and Kolfinna could imagine him rolling his eyes, despite not being able to see him. “They say nobody has made it out alive from there! Seriously, youcan’tdo this. I don’t care how much the reward money is. It’s not worth it.”

“Nollar, stop yelling.” Eyfura’s voice grew stern. “Please.”

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