Page 62 of The Ruins of the Heartless Fae

“I’m not taking that.”

“Take it!” Kolfinna laughed and tossed it in his direction. The wind seemed to be on her side because it carried it toward him, and he had to jump to the side to keep it from smacking his face. Kolfinna doubled over as he kicked the handkerchief away in horror.

“I’d rather eat sand than have that touch me.” He shivered in disgust and ran a hand over his stubbled jaw. His sharp eyes found her as she continued laughing. “And why are you still laughing like a fiend?”

“Oh, gosh, you’re too funny—” Tears pricked the corner of Kolfinna’s eyes. Who would’ve thought that black rank Blár Vilulf could make a face likethat? Like he had witnessed the greatest injustice in the world.

“Save your tears forafterwe find a source of water.” He straightened his uniform and cast a suspicious look at her. “And don’t touch me.”

Kolfinna’s laughter subsided and she was reminded for the umpteenth time that they were parched, and if the dreki or the hunger didn’t get to them first, the lack of water would.

“Why would I want to touch you?” She rolled her eyes and wriggled her fingers at him. “My hands are clean.”

“Let’s say you dig your hands in horse shit. If you wipe it with a cloth, are you suddenly,magically, clean?”

“Well, no—”

“Exactly. So don’t touch me or my things.”

“I don’t want to touch you.”

They continued their journey once more, but this time it was steeped in silence. The suns started to dip closer to the horizon, and she surmised it would take an hour or less for them to set—and hopefully, they would be spared from their heat.

Kolfinna kept shooting glances at Blár and averting her gaze whenever he noticed. It was strange being around him. There was still a part of her that didn’t like him, but there was another growing part of her that actuallylikedbeing around him. And that shocked her. Because he wassupposedto be the epitome of evil and crude and terrible.And she wasn’tsupposedto enjoy being with him.

Kolfinna combed her hair with her fingers and detangled it slowly as she tried unraveling her thoughts. Blár was still her enemy, she told herself. And she wasn’t laughingwithhim butathim. So it wasn’t like she was enjoying herself with him. Right? And it was normal to admire how strong he was—they were fighting for their lives, so of course she was naturally drawn to his strength. So long as that admiration stayed as admiration, she was fine. And it was normal to find him attractive since there was no one else around her.

Blár’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Do you sense any runes or anything?”

“No.”

“Maybe we can make our own weapons?” He peered ahead at the scattered boulders and stones on the sandy skyline. “I don’t know.”

Kolfinna rubbed her chin thoughtfully. They needed to come up with an answer, because they were both starving, and she doubted they could survive for long in their current environment. From the looks of it, there was no life besides their own and the dreki, which meant there were likely no food sources for them.

“How exactly do runes work?” Blár unhooked his heavy cloak and draped it over one arm before yanking at the collar of his uniform. Sweat formed on his brows. His chest and arms filled the uniform snugly, and Kolfinna wondered what it would feel like to run her hands over it and feel how hard it must’ve been.

Kolfinna’s cheeks stained with color as she realized where her thoughts were running. What in the world was she thinking? He was the enemy! And she didnotwant to touch him. Ever.

“Well?” He glanced down at her, his attention anything but comforting. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to realize her inner dilemma.

She cleared her throat. “I’m not exactly sure. It wasn’t like I was taught about them. It’s just … I look at the runes and the meaning pops up in my head, as if it’s like second nature. It’s like … You don’t think about how you’re moving your arm when you move it, right? Your muscles move it without you thinking. It’s the same principle with the runes.”

“That complicates things.” Blár frowned. “I guess it’s not that easy to decipher them, then. They have magical properties, I suppose?”

“What do they look like to you? From my understanding, humans can’t read them.”

“They just look like squiggles.” He made swirls in the air with his finger. “Looks like a bunch of gibberish. But the weirdest thing is that I can’t pick it up. Just looking at it, it doesn’t make any sense. All languages have some sort of pattern and repetition in sentences. Like nouns or transition words. But I can’t even try to comprehend runes. It’s like they scramble my mind when I look at them.”

“Are you familiar with other languages?”

“A few. In my village, we spoke two languages—the common tongue and then our native tongue. And when I joined the military, I was taught Skarl—that’s the language of Skarlland. They’re to the east of us. I was stationed near the border there, so it’s useful to know the language if there’s ever an attack or just for negotiation purposes or if there are merchants wanting to travel through. And then when I became a black rank, they wanted me in the south-east border, and I picked up—” He stopped abruptly, as if realizing he was going off on a tangent. Kolfinna wasn’t sure if it was the two suns making his face red from heat or embarrassment. “Well, to make a long story short: yes. I think runes might be protected by magic or something, to keep humans from understanding them.”

“You know, now that I think about it,” Kolfinna mused, “there seems to be two types of runes. The ones with magic, and the ones without. The ones without magic, like the runes outside the castle, are like regular writing. But the ones with magic … It’s more complex and I can feel more mana in them than regular writing … I think there’s a lot that goes into runes. But I can’t figure it out completely. I don’t have anyone to teach me … And, well, I don’t know much about them in general. My sister never taught me about runes.”

“Is it true that only powerful fae can read them?”

“Maybe? Runes are imbued with mana—no, actually, they’re magic in themselves. I would guess that a fae with lower powers wouldn’t be able to decipher them … But I really don’t know.”

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