Page 103 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

Kolfinna paused at wrapping the roll of bandages around her shoulder. “He saw me naked after I took a bath,” she answered honestly. A flush of embarrassment washed over her face. She didn’t like thinking about that moment. “It was an accident.”

“How? The women’s bathing room is on a different level than the men’s. He couldn’t have gotten in there without?—”

“It wasn’t in the normal baths.” She pressed her lips together. “It was in his room.”

Blár’s shoulders stiffened. “His room?”

“Yes.”

“Why … Why were you in his room?” By the way his hand gripped tighter on the wall, she could tell he was having a hard time not turning his head to pin her with a stare.

Kolfinna placed a wad of bandages to her chest and buttoned her uniform up since that was easier than having to wrap around her chest with one hand. It also gave her time to think as she did that. It bothered him that she had gone into Joran’s room. She could tell by his tone and the way his body went rigid at herwords. It would probably bother her too knowing that he was in a woman’s room,bathingor doing who knew what.

Did he think she would jump into Joran’s bed? Was he insecure about her feelings toward him?

All she had to do was tell him that Joran was fae, and the only reason she was in there was to try out his rune-magicked bathing room. But for some reason, it felt wrong to tell him. An old habit, most likely; the fae always helped out another fae by keeping their secret.

But why did she need to keep his secret? Joran cared so much about that secret that he was willing to let the fae warrior whisk her away.

“Joran is fae,” Kolfinna blurted out before she could think better.

Blár went silent.

“There’s nothing between us, by the way,” she continued. Her heart picked up in pace at his unmoving body, at the way his fingers were flattened against the ridges of the hole. At how ice clung to his fingertips, spreading out like thin spiderwebs over the cracked wall. “It was an accident, Blár.”

Blár sighed. “I believe you. I’m just … frustrated because that weasel-faced freak saw you in that position and then thought to use that against you. And yes, it worked. I’m angry. At him. At the fact that he saw you naked, and of course at the thought that you were probably very embarrassed when it happened, and him bringing it up probably makes you even more uncomfortable.”

Kolfinna distractedly wrapped her arm a tad tighter with the bandages. She was lost for words. She had never had someone angry on her behalf—at least, not like this.

Blár released his iron-like grip from the wall and chuckled. “By the way, are you done yet? Staring at these soldiers isn’t very fun.”

“Yes, I’m done.”

He glanced over his shoulder at her, and even with the darkness of night enveloping behind him, she could make out the tilt of his lips. “And here I thought I’d get to see something more than just your bare arm.”

“Keep dreaming.” She chuckled and couldn’t stop the blush from spreading over to the tips of her ears.

“How’s the wound on your chest?” Pebbles bounced off the duvet when Blár dropped down on the bed across from hers. “It looks really nasty. An arrow wound?”

She grimaced as she remembered how that glowing, gold arrow had burrowed itself into her chest and drawn her mana out. “I think it was a rune-marked arrow. It drained my mana out completely.”

“You’re lucky you’re not dead from that.” He gave her a strange look as he said that.

Maybe the wound had partially closed before the arrow drew her mana out? That was the only explanation she could think of. But she wasn’t going to tell him that. “I don’t know,” she said with a shrug but then winced. “I must be lucky, then.”

Blár stretched out his legs. “So you have no clue why they were after you?”

“None.” She thumbed the edge of the bed and eased herself down on it again. The lie rolled off thickly, like it wasn’t meant to be there. And she should have trusted him—he had proved himself to be her ally—but her old, deep-seated fear kept her from revealing herself. “Maybe because I’m the only fae here? Who knows.”

“Huh.”

They were silent for a long time after that. Kolfinna could make out a few muffled cries in the courtyard, the shifting of bodies from one location to the other, the curses under peoples’ breaths. She wanted desperately to unhear it all. Toshift her mind onto a lighter subject. One that didn’t include her potentially precarious fate.

Silence filled the space between them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was… calming. And she could feel herself drifting asleep.

“It was terrifying, you know.” The bed creaked and she heard him draw closer to her—his boots scuffling against fallen debris, pebbles, and stones. He gingerly sat on the edge of her bed, and the entire mattress dipped with his weight.

“What was?” Kolfinna peeled her eyes open to find him staring down at her with a soft expression.

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