Page 123 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

“I won’t,” she whispered, turning to Sijur. “I’m not going to torture?—”

Kolfinna turned to Joran, as if he could help, but he pointedly stared at his feet and turned his face the other way. As if telling her not to ask him anything.

“You will. And if you don’t, I will make you do the same to all of these prisoners.” Sijur waved at the others, and there wasn’t a hint of empathy in his dark, dark eyes. Only wickedness. “And then you’ll have more on your conscience than a single man.”

“But why?” Tears burned the back of her eyes and her vision blurred. “Why are you making me do this?”

“Simple. I need to break down those vulnerabilities of yours.” He stared at her levelly, and a shiver ran down her spine. “You would be so much stronger, so much better if you let go of these gray-toned moralities you hold onto. You are a monster. Accept it and kill thathumanityof yours. You are afae.”

Kolfinna breathed out shakily. “I refuse.”

“Then all of these prisoners will suffer the same fate. By your hands.” Sijur smiled at her. It was jarring to see such a pleasant expression on his face, drenched in blood. “You have what it takes, sweetheart. And you need to bring it out to the surface. If you need me to ease your conscience, I can make you do it through the runes, but eventually, you’ll do it without. Now, do you need me to order you to do it?”

Yes, please.

She wanted to say those words aloud, but they were stuck in her throat. They refused to escape. Her gaze drifted back to the man, and she could feel something within her withering away. The other prisoners watched her too—red eyes, blazing blue eyes, purple eyes, but mostly fae eyes.

Kill that humanity of yours.

She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t throw away her heart and become a monster.

The blade fell from her hand. “I can’t do it.”

“Kolfinna, youneedto do it,” Sijur gritted out through clenched teeth. “Or else?—”

“I refuse!” She turned to him sharply, all too aware that all the fae and elves were watching her intently. She clambered to her feet, her hands trembling and her body feeling light. “I refuse to torture someone because you want to turn him into a slave! I may be a fae, but I’m not a heartless monster like you! I could never?—”

“You—” Sijur’s lips curled and he took a domineering step forward.

The flap of the curtain furled open and a man barreled inside. Everyone snapped their attention at him. A soldier in a gray uniform underneath his chainmail.A human.

He breathed out heavily, panicked eyes roving over the room before settling on Sijur. His hands trembled, and sweat poured down the sides of his face. “T-T-The?—”

“What is it?” Sijur snapped when the man continued to stutter. He waved a hand at the prisoners. “We are busy?—”

“Reinforcements!” the man sputtered. “The reinforcements have arrived!”

“The what?” Sijur’s eyebrows came together. “Why?—”

Reinforcements? But Sijur’s army was the reinforcements?—

“No, no, you misunderstand—” the man began.

One of the prisoners began to laugh, and then the others followed.

Kolfinna looked around the room, and Sijur did the same. The messenger seemed to shrink away from them, his face growing pallid.

“Our general has finally arrived,” one of the women said, sharp teeth gleaming as she grinned ferally at Sijur. “You will all die.”

The half-elf had finally arrived.

29

Kolfinna was morethan happy to flee from Sijur’s tent. But what she didn’t expect to find outside the tent of prisoners was a sky full of winged fae and drekis. There must have been tens of thousands of soldiers, completely dwarfing Sijur’s army and the leftover soldiers from Hilda’s unit.

What drew her attention the most was the central figure of the army, and she could tell that he was the general just from how the air seemed different around him. Power clung to his very being. He was straight from a nightmare. Covered entirely in black, scaly, leathered armor, the half-elf commander seemed to demand the attention of the entire battlefield. A black helmet covered his face, and giant black wings kept him afloat in the air. And those wings—how terrifying they were. Unlike the feathery wings or gossamer ones the other fae had, his were similar to that of a dreki. Velvet, black, and with a dark, scaly frame.

Shadowy magic lashed out from him, darkening the sky even further.

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