Page 79 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

She held up a finger and took a step back. “Don’t”—she swallowed down the dryness of her throat—“don’t call me that.” She wanted to get out of here. If any of the soldiers or the Royal Guards found out that she was the heir, they would kill her. If Ragnarök and the half-elf commander found out where she was, then they would capture her. Either way, she was screwed.

But as long as Rakel was a prisoner here, the half-elf commander would never know that she was here.

Kolfinna needed to find a way to break the rune mark and escape, far away from Ragnarök, the half-elf commander and his armies, and the military. It would only take one slipup for the military to realize who she was. If they started piecing together that she was part elf, it wasn’t a farfetched idea that she was somehow related to all of this.

“Princess—”

“I’m not a princess.” She blinked away her dizziness. “I’m just Kolfinna.”

Rakel chuckled. “You cannot hide from your blood.”

That was the last thing Kolfinna heard before she spun around and stormed out of the room. She couldn’t think straight,not beyond the cloying fog of confusion and anxiety ebbing her vision and clogging her thoughts.

17

Kolfinna stirred in her bed.She wasn’t able to sleep well. Not since she visited Rakel. Her mind was stuck in that room with the circle of runes. Her whole world had been turned upside down—another thing that seemed to be very common every few months. She had suspected that she was related to the heir somehow, but she would’ve never imagined that she was the actual daughter of the elf-commander.

That she was aprincess.

None of it felt real.

She worked even harder to break the rune mark. Tried scouring the fort several times for clues. Even sneaking into Joran’s room didn’t give her anything useful. Other than scraps of paper with doodles and boring books in human languages.

Her mind was completely consumed by the insane thought that she was the long-awaited heir.How?

Even if Rakel had shown her a hundred signs and proofs that she was the daughter of the ruthless queen and the powerful half-elf commander, she couldn’t believe it. She was too ordinary to bethisimportant. Not to mention the notion sounded like a fable.

And then there was the matter of her parents—the parents she had thought were hers—and Katla. If Rakel was telling the truth, why had they awakened her from the cave? Why did they free her?But they were all dead, and she couldn’t even ask them what it all meant.

Kolfinna rolled in her bed, those wicked thoughts plaguing her.

Inkeri sat on her bed, embroidering a flower onto a handkerchief. She had been quiet the entire evening, choosing to focus on her embroidery rather than talk.

Kolfinna’s attention was drawn to the steady poking and pulling of the embroidery needle into the cloth. She needed a distraction, and the two women in the room were perfect for that. “Hey, Inkeri, I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“Do you like Ivar?”

Herja, who had been tossing and turning and trying to fall asleep, perked up at that. “I want to know too.”

Inkeri paused and lifted her moon-like eyes at them both. She blinked, clear surprise showing on her face. “What? Like romantically?”

“Yes,” Kolfinna said. The thoughts of the half-elf commander, of the ruthless queen, of Ragnarök slipped into a deeper crevice of her mind. She tried smiling, tried focusing on Inkeri’s expression and the frivolities of mindless gossip.

“No way,” she said with a wave. “He’s a jerk.”

“Huh, really?” Kolfinna slung her legs over the edge of the bed. “He seems to be in love with you, though,” Kolfinna said.

Herja chuckled while Inkeri gave them both a strange look. “No, he’s not. Do you see the way he talks to me? He treats me like crap!”

“He’s completely in love,” Kolfinna pressed, placing her hands on the edge of her mattress as she leaned closer. “He was so worried when you were hurt?—”

“Right?! I was thinking that too.” Herja sat up and her quilted blanket fell over her lap. “I suspected it for a while?—”

“No way.” Inkeri crinkled her nose and continued embroidering. “He was only worried because I’m his teammate.”

“So you aren’t interested in him like that?” Herja asked.

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