Page 40 of The Ruins of the Heartless Fae

“We’re all in this mess because of her!” Magni shouted and tried wriggling his shoulder. “She didn’t tell us anything about this! Now let me go, fae scum!”

“Let him go!” Truda stepped in front of Magni, as if she was the protective barrier he needed. “He’s just as scared as the rest of us! Besides, what he’s saying is true. You didn’t tell us any of this would happen! Isn’t that your job?”

Kolfinna clenched and unclenched her fists. “My job? Are you freaking serious right now? How was I supposed to know we’d be thrust onto afreaking shipin the middle of a storm?!”

“You’re a fae!” Truda said with a twisted expression. “You should know this place better than us. Your kind lived here! And besides, you’re fine and well right now, aren’t you? Think about the people who lost their lives! Let him go!”

Kolfinna’s mouth hung open and she almost couldn’t speak with how much anger was boiling her veins. “You cannot be serious right now. So I should ignore the fact that he tried to killme? And are we just going to gloss over that I helped save us all? That he was about to doom us all?! None of that matters because we’re fine now? Are you serious?”

She turned to Mímir and the rest of everyone. She expected some sort of rebuttal, or for them to realize how ridiculous Truda sounded, but almost everyone had the same hostile gleam in their eyes. It then hit her. They needed someone to blame. And she was the perfect target.

Kolfinna felt like someone punched her in the gut. “This isn’t my fault,” she whispered as the gazes in the room turned sharp—hostile. She looked for a familiar face, for someone to believe her, but all she saw was a sea of hatred. Kolfinna’s voice lowered, her tone losing its steam. “Don’t trivialize what Magni did to me just because he didn’t succeed. He tried tokillme.”

For a moment, no one said anything and Kolfinna feared they would all turn on her. Her body trembled and she wasn’t sure if it was from the cold water drenching her bones or from the current situation. She cast a quick glance at the doorway; she could make it if she ran. Maybe.

Finally, Mímir stepped forward. “Kolfinna is right. This isn’t her fault. Also, no one could’ve imagined that this would happen.”

“We all need to stick together.” Truda placed one hand on her hip while she motioned to Magni with her other hand. “Let him go.”

“Stick together?” Kolfinna laughed hollowly and her eyes stung. “You seem awfully bent on making me look like the bad guy here.”

“Youarethe bad guy,” Magni hissed from the wall. “You’re a murderer.”

“We’re a team, so let him go.” Truda glowered at Kolfinna and crossed her arms over her chest. Kolfinna had the urge to knock her back along with Magni. “Besides, isn’t the whole reason you’re here so you can read the runes and warn us about something like this? Why didn’t you? Why didn’t you read the room or find clues or something?! If you had warned us, we wouldn’t have—”

“Truda, shut up.” Blár’s voice cracked like a whip.

Truda blinked in surprise and opened her mouth to protest, but no words came out. Blár was now shirtless, sitting on the floor with a roll of bandages in one hand and an open jar of salve balanced on his thigh. He was in the middle of wrapping his arm, a wad of bloody rags beside him. His ice-cold eyes narrowed at Truda.

“Stop with your accusations. You sound like a dung beetle.” He wrapped the bindings tightly around his bulging forearm. Water glistened against his rippling chest. “She saved all our asses by reading that rune shit and putting those rubies where they needed to be.”

“D-Dung beetle?” Truda sputtered, opening and closing her mouth, cheeks ablaze. “What does that even—”

“I don’t think it’s right that Magni tried to kill her and you’re brushing it under the rug just because she didn’t die.” Blár’s face twisted in pain when he tightened the bandage around his bicep; blood seeped into the bindings and colored them a deep, rich red. He continued wrapping the bandages until there was enough padding to hide the flowing blood. He raised his sharp blue eyes to pin Truda with a withering stare. “Stop making excuses for your own pathetic uselessness. I’ve told you several times that the next time you talk shit, I’ll freeze your half-wit mind.”

Truda flinched as the temperature of the room dropped. Despite the sudden coldness, Kolfinna’s chest tightened with unexpected warmth. He was the last person she expected to stand up for her.

Magni writhed against the wall, trying to free himself again; he reminded Kolfinna of a butterfly pinned to a wall by its wings. “Why are you siding with the fae?” Magni spat. The rage brewing on his face made it seem like it was personal, even though it shouldn’t have been. “She’s not on our side.”

“Oh, I almost forgot about the talking pond scum.” Blár rolled his eyes and finished binding his arm. He then took a rag and blotting another nasty cut on his stomach. “I’m not siding with anyone. You guys are acting like headless chickens who’ve never gone on a mission. You think we all like each other?Hell no. But we work together because that’s our job. Or have you forgotten that?”

Kolfinna couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. Wasn’thethe one who threatened her before the mission? But she ignored the quip fighting to loosen her lips; he had saved her several times on the ship before he even realized her usefulness, so she let him off the hook for that. But just for this moment. She allowed the warmth in her chest to spread and tingle over her whole body.

“Huh? Why are you all looking like that?” Blár scoffed as everyone goggled at him like he’d grown three heads. “Your faces look like there’s shit leaking from them.”

“S-She didn’t save us fast enough. She must’ve delayed it,” Magni sputtered, his face turning a shade of blue as he struggled to breathe against the rocks. Kolfinna loosened the stones a tad bit and was relieved when some color returned to his face; she didn’tactuallywant to kill him.

“No, she didn’t. I was watching her and I was by her side for most of it.” Blár slowly unrolled another set of bandages and Kolfinna fought the urge to stare at his body—at his sculpted chest, the lean cut of his abdomen, his biceps. “Stop pointing fingers and focus on your own wounds. You might not like her because she’s a fae, but we need her on our side if we want any chance to survive. We wouldn’t have survived without her. Do any of us know how to read that rune stuff? What would we have done in that situation? We would’ve all died.”

“It’s like you said”—Kolfinna turned to Truda, who had remained like a rock since Blár snapped at her—“if we want to survive, we have to stick together.” She then turned to Magni. “Andyou. You’re absolutely despicable. You’ve shown that your hatred is more important than the mission!”

Kolfinna wanted to squeeze him harder and thrash him on the floor a few times, but that would only make everyone more hostile toward her, so she released him, but not before giving him a little push on the back with a stone so that he face-planted onto the hard floor.

“Hey, I agree with Kolfinna and Blár,” a familiar voice said.

Kolfinna quickly scoured the party until her gaze landed on Eyfura, and a tension she hadn’t realized that had been building up inside her loosened tremendously.She was alive. Kolfinna could’ve sunk to the floor with the relief she felt.

Kolfinna could see why she hadn’t been able to recognize Eyfura from a quick glance. Eyfura’s usually gold-blond hair was mostly doused with dried blood, and the cuts and bruises on her face dampened her typical cheerful disposition.

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