Page 111 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

“Okay, that’s enough.” Kolfinna lurched forward to snatch it from his hand, but he only raised it higher so she couldn’t. She jumped to her feet at the same time he did, but whereas he was grinning in amusement, her face was pinched together sourly. “Give it back. I didn’t think you’d be so mean about?—”

“Hey, I said I wasn’ttryingto be an asshole?—”

“But youare.” She held her hand out. “Give it back now.”

“You gave me this shitty flower, so it’s mine.” He lifted one shoulder, and the wind decided at that moment to brush against his hair gently, tousling it against the smirk on his wickedly beautiful face.

Kolfinna didn’t let that moment distract her for too long. “I let youseeit, notkeepit.”

Blár threw his head back and laughed. When he looked down at her, his teeth gleamed white against moonlight. There was a softness in his eyes that melted at something in her chest. “Here’s a little thing about me, sweet-cheeks. If something is mine, then it’s mine. You’ll have to fight me tooth and nail if you want to get this ugly-ass rock from me.”

She could see what he was doing: calming her nerves.

It was working, except she wasn’t exactly calm. She was a tad annoyed. But maybe that worked too.

“Call it uglyone more time,” she warned. Her mana pulsed beneath her feet to the roots buried in the earth.

“This deformed, lumpy, hideous thing is offensive to flowers—” he began and Gunnar snorted in the background.

Kolfinna flicked her wrist. One of the roots of a dormant tree slithered out and wrapped around Blár’s ankle. It caught him off guard and yanked him to the ground. The flower skittered a few feet away from him as he fell backward. He blinked up at the sky, while Kolfinna burst into laughter.

“That’sdirty.” He rubbed the back of his head with a glare. “I thought you couldn’t manipulate plants during the winter?”

“I learned how to do it recently.” She shrugged. Ever since she had miraculously used the tree branches and roots during the fight with Rakel, it was like something had clicked into place and she was able to manipulate dormant nature now. It didn’t come as easily to her as it did in the summer, spring, or autumn, but she was able to use it well enough.

Eluf chuckled softly from his place near the fire. His dark eyes looked more intense with the fire burning in front of him and he nodded at Kolfinna. “That could be useful. Anytime Blár annoys us, we should have you trip him.”

Gunnar snickered. “Yeah, that’d be funny to see.”

Blár scowled at the two brothers and continued to dust off his pants. “I wouldn’t normally fall for that.”

“Pun intended?” Herja chirped in.

Blár paused. “Let’s say it was intended.”

Kolfinna plopped back down on the ground. Everyone was either laughing or chatting with one another. Her heart clenched together tightly at the sight of them. She didn’t want any of them to lose their lives. When she was in the Eventyrslot ruins, the majority of the party had died, and while she had felt guilty and sad over that, it was nothing compared to the thought of losing the people here. She had somehow grown close to them, despite her aversion to friendship.

Was that what they were now? Friends?

The mere thought made her throat close up.

Her gaze roamed over to the other soldiers talking to one another, eating dried meat and cheese, being silent in preparation, or just milling about. Some of them would likely die on the battlefield too. The half-elf commander and his men were probably strong. If Blár had trouble with Rakel … she didn’t even want to think about how the others would fare against an equal force.

Joran stood out among the other soldiers. He sat alone by a small fire. The wind tousled his gold hair, and his bronze skin looked darker in the night. What if they ran into an emergency during battle and Sijur ordered her to marry Joran through theBryllupceremony? Another knot of anxiety tied itself in her stomach.

She didn’t want to bind herselfforeverto Joran.

She thought back to the unnamed fae soldier’s journal she had read months ago and how he had lamented about being forced to marry someone he didn’t want to but had done it anyway because of the war.

Kolfinna didn’t want to share his fate.

“You’re doing that thing again.” Blár flicked her forehead lightly with his forefinger. He pulled his hand away right before she could swat at him. “When you’re stressed, you do this thing where your eyebrows pull together and you get a little wrinkle between your brows. Like you’re angry, except you’re not, you’re just anxious. Oh, and your mouth pouts a bit too. Like a little frown.”His voice was barely a whisper, as if he didn’t want the others to hear.

Her face warmed at his observations. “I don’t do that.”

“You do.”

“No—”

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