Page 133 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

Several minutes passed and she tried to use Blár’s mana, but even with Blár’s expansive mana, which had replenished over the course of the few hours since the battle, the runes refused to yield. She even tried overwriting the runes, but her runes never came to fruition.

“I think we need to break those shadows first.” Kolfinna motioned to the shadows holding him hostage. They were barring him from using his magic, after all, but they didn’t seem to be leaching too much of his mana like she had initially thought; it was more like a trickle. “But … I don’t know how.”

Blár grimaced. “It seems like we’re stuck.”

Kolfinna racked her brain for something she could do. But what? What could she possibly do in this situation? She couldn’t break the runes or overwrite them, so what other option did she have left?

“Blár, when you were fighting the elf commander, was there any time when you were able to break free from his shadows? I remember him mentioning that it was a shame that you didn’t have enough mana to hold his magic back?” She remembered how with Rakel, Kolfinna’s shadows were able to overpower Rakel’s momentarily, and that the elf woman had used light magic to counteract the shadows. Was that what Kolfinnaneeded to use—light magic? Or did the shadows follow the basic concept of elemental magic? That if the other party’s power was stronger, it didn’t matter what element it was? If Blár’s ice could become stronger than the current shadows, could he overpower them?

Blár stopped struggling to unbind his hands and seemed to think. “In the beginning, when I had more mana, I was able to hold him off with my ice, but as the battle continued, I couldn’t. And then, well, I lost.” He said the last part with a bitter snarl.

“If you could have a boost of mana, would you be able to break free?”

“I … Well, these things are already draining me, but I did replenish a decent amount during the night … But enough to break free? No, not right now.”

“How much would you need?”

“Just a bit,” he said slowly. “Why?”

“I’ve never done this before, but let me transfer my mana to you.” Joran had done it to her before, so she could certainly do it to him, right?

Kolfinna inched closer to him and touched the side of his face. She didn’t want to touch his bound hands because that only made the shadows seem to grow fiercer, as if to sway her away.

For a moment, nothing happened.

“Do you sense my mana?” she asked as she prodded her mana against his skin.

Blár’s eyebrows came together. “No.”

She tried again, but her mana wasn’t able to go beyond her own flesh. She had done this before, with Eyfura in the Eventyrslot ruins, so why couldn’t she now?

The shadows around Blár’s wrists rose in her peripheral vision, and she bit back a curse. “I think the shadows are stopping me from transferring my mana to you.”

Blár sighed loudly. “So we’re stuck in a damn loop.” Frustration leaked in his voice. “We can’t break out of the room because of these shadows. But the way to break the shadows requires mana, but we can’t use mana because of the shadows, and we can’t leave the room because of the runes.”

Kolfinna tried to think of another way, but the only thing she could think of was … too farfetched of an idea, and there was no guarantee it would work either.

“There … might be a way,” Kolfinna’s whispered. The words stumbled out of her mouth clumsily. “Remember when we went to the western border, and I was telling you about that fae ceremony that boosts your magic? It, like, makes you share your magic with someone?”

“TheBryllupceremony?” Blár asked slowly, and then his eyes widened. Time seemed to slow as they both stared at each other. “Do you think that’ll be enough? If my mana combines with yours, I’ll have enough to break out.”

“My mana is replenished completely.” She touched her chest, and sure enough, she had enough mana. “But … Maybe it’s better that we just wait until your mana replenishes completely?”

“That could take over two days.” He winced as he tried sitting up.

“Your mana takes that long to replenish?” Her mouth almost dropped open. Her mana usually took a night to replenish, and that was it. Was it just because he had so much that it took that long?

“For it tocompletelyreplenish, yes.” He sagged against the wall of the room and tipped his head back. “I don’t think we have enough time for that, and if we want to escape now, then we need to do that ceremony and leave as soon as possible. The sun is about to rise. We can still use the darkness to our advantage and escape. It seems the enemy is too distracted to focus on usright now, and they’re probably arrogant enough to believe that we have zero options to leave.”

She looked at him carefully, at the way his hair fell across his forehead, at his strong arms bound so tightly behind him, and she remembered the words she had spoken on the battlefield. “But, Blár, if we do the ceremony, that means?—”

“That we’ll be married?” He laughed and there was a small twinkle in his eyes she almost didn’t catch. The corner of his mouth rose into a half-smirk. “I always knew you’d be my woman one day.”

A blush spread over her face and she suddenly felt too warm in the room. “You … what?”

His laughs quickly turned to grunts of pain. “We have to be quick,” he said with another grimace. He jerked a chin at the metal door that had no handle. “They’re probably planning on turning us into slaves.”

“You’re right …” Kolfinna cleared her throat. She didn’t have time to dwell on the fact that Blár had always known she would be his, or that she was going to marryBlár Vilulf. Her heart raced and she tried to focus beyond her fluttering, giddy thoughts. “Do you want to do it? I don’t know if it’ll work with a human and a fae, but we have nothing to lose.”

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