Page 34 of The Ruins of the Heartless Fae

“It’s just a statue,” a soldier in his mid-thirties said, gulping and looking around himself. “Can we just move on?”

“Does this place scare you, Eyjarr?” Truda asked with a smirk as she dragged her hand over the moss-ridden wall. “I think the stories of the soldiers never making it out of here are just lies. They probably just looted the place and made a run for it so they could keep the riches.”

Kolfinna crossed the room until she was face to face with the statue. The rune on her hand readWar. Kolfinna studied the woman, trying to remember if Katla or her parents had ever mentioned a woman with chains, or serpents, from the other room. But she came up with nothing. Was this woman a historical figure? A myth? A symbolism for something? There was so much Kolfinna didn’t know about her own history. Guilt, shame, and sadness washed over her. All of that had been ripped away from her because the humans waged war on her people centuries ago and wiped their history clean.

“She looks a bit … creepy,” Eyfura said with a nervous laugh.

“Maybe she’ll attack us,” Torsten joked.

“Oh come on.” Magni gnashed a broken piece of tile beneath his boot. “Don’t joke like that. With how freaky this place is, I wouldn’t be surprised if she started moving and jumped on us.”

“Maybe she’ll move and”—Truda jumped in front of Eyjarr, the soldier she had teased earlier—“eat you up like in the stories!”

Eyjarr flinched and she burst into laughter. “Oh, screw off,” he muttered.

“Is she supposed to be a fae?” a soldier asked.

“The fae don’t have wings like that.”

Click. Clack.

“And how do you know that?”

“Well, look at her.” Magni motioned to Kolfinna. “She doesn’t have wings.”

“Maybe she can grow them.”

Click. Clack.

Kolfinna tuned the conversations out and looked around herself. Where was that clicking noise coming from? No one was doing anything that warranted that noise. The Royal Guards and military were either swarming the statue or looking at the walls, which had crude drawings of flying birds etched into them with faded black paint.

Click. Clack.

She drew herself closer to the window and scrubbed the dust coating it so she could see better. As she had suspected, it was identical to the previous room: a walkway underneath the flying buttresses. It was all probably connected; maybe it acted as an escape route if people were trapped in the rooms? Or maybe the walkway wrapped around other parts of the castle as well?

Click. Clack.

Kolfinna squinted through the window. Was it her imagination or was there a shadow warping across the walkway? Just as she was thinking that, she followed the shadow to where a figure lumbered forward.

A humanoid creature that was twice her size trudged along the walkway. Its cream-colored bald head looked like moldy cheese, with dents and craters and splotches of green. Milky blind eyes flitted over the ceiling of the buttresses and then to the floor, its head bobbing right and left. A rag hung over its emaciated body, and it held a rusted sword, its mouth gaping open to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth. Its skin was a withered gray, and there were rotting pieces of flesh on its legs and arms.

What the—

It craned its neck in her direction and Kolfinna’s heart froze as its blind eyes met hers.

This can’t be real—

It opened its mouth and shrieked, the glass vibrating from the earsplitting noise. Kolfinna stumbled backward as it launched at the window. Glass shattered and sprayed the room, and she brought her hands over squinting eyes just as the monster tackled her to the floor.

Spit splattered her face and sharp glass cut into her back. The creature pinned her down with its weight. Its mouth opened wide and it screamed again, this time louder. Kolfinna’s ears rang as it continued screaming.

Kolfinna couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. The room disappeared and all she could see was the creature screaming at her face. She had no idea where everyone else was. She couldn’t even think to ask for help.

The creature pressed its sword to her throat and her hands automatically wedged into the space between the sword and her neck. The corroded edge of the blade bit into the palms of her hands, but she didn’t even register the pain. Her mind was blank.

In a split second, ice splintered forward and shoved the monster off her. The monster shrieked as it hit the wall, which dented and cracked on impact. Debris fell on their heads with the force of the attack. The monster lurched to its feet, screeching as it ran toward Eyfura, who was closest to it. Ice shot from the floor and gripped its feet, halting its movement and making it fall. It bellowed incoherently and clawed at the floor before the ice spread across its whole body and encapsulated it.

Everyone watched in stunned horror. The creature’s mouth was frozen open in the ice, its claws stretched forward as if to grab the nearest person. Kolfinna pushed herself into a sitting position, her breaths ragged and heavy.What just happened?She ripped her gaze from the monster to Blár.

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