Page 80 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

Inkeri hesitated.

Kolfinna’s eyes widened. “So you are.”

“No,” she said sharply. “Not like that.”

“Then like what?” Herja asked.

“Do you see the way he treats me?” Inkeri stuck her embroidering needle into the handkerchief she was working on and placed the whole piece on her nightstand beside her lantern. “He always talks down to me and he’smean. He knows how much I want to be a purple rank, and he just keeps rubbing it in my face that I’m not at that level yet and that I’m weak.” Her voice wobbled before growing harsher. “He’s just an asshole all-around. So no, I don’t like him like that and if he does”—she brought her trembling lips together—“if he is interested in me, then he’s an idiot to think that the way he’s treating me would make me reciprocate that.”

Herja nodded slowly. “But have you ever thought about sleeping with him?”

Kolfinna gasped, turning to Herja in shock. “Inkeri was just sharing a very vulnerable part of herself with us and you think that’s the appropriate question?—”

But one look at Inkeri’s blushing face clamped her mouth shut. Herja laughed and smacked her pillow. “Iknewit.”

“I-I’ve never thought about that—” Inkeri covered her suddenly ruddy face with her hands. “Stop looking at me like that!”

Herja leaned forward excitedly. “Do you remember last month when we got back from

excavating that collapsed building and there was a mini feast for everyone?” Herja grinned toothily. “I could’ve sworn I saw you two kiss each other in the hallway. Did it really happen?”

“I want to know too,” Kolfinna said, inching closer to the edge of the bed like that would make the answer come out faster.

“Well”—Inkeri smoothed down her nightgown and avoided their gazes—“yes. It did.”

Herja covered her mouth. “Holy crap. I thought it was you, but Brenda told me it was probably some other girl because why wouldyoube interested inhim, and vice versa?”

“Youkissedhim?” Kolfinna raised an eyebrow. The way Inkeri and Ivar acted around each other didn’t give away that they were romantically involved in any way. But a kiss changed things. “Are you sure you’re not interested in him?”

“I don’t know!” Inkeri flipped onto her stomach and buried her blushing face in her pillow. “I think it’s wrong for me to have any feelings toward him because of the way he treats me, but he’s just so … Charming? Is that even the right word?”

Charming definitely wasn’t the word Kolfinna would use to describe him.

“Do I just have a strange type?” Inkeri pushed herself on her elbows and turned her head to them. “Why would I be attracted to a freakingbully? Because that’s what he does. He’s just plain mean to me, so my feelings don’t make sense.”

“Why don’t you just sleep with him once and get all of that out of your system?” Herja asked.

“I can’t do that!” Inkeri combed her hair with her fingers. “And besides, that kiss … I don’t even know if itcountsas a kiss.”

“So?” Herja waved an impatient hand. “Are you going to explain or no?”

“Well, he said he wanted to talk to me, and so we went into the hall, and then he … he kissed me.” Inkeri’s face was shifting into a deeper shade of scarlet. She twisted a strand of her hair between her fingers. “And, well, he told me he wants to, well, let’s just say he said some vulgar things. But here’s the thing, he was drunk.Verydrunk.” She blew out air. “He kinda proposed, I think? Said he wants to, um, make me his and stuff?—”

“That’s not a proposal.” Herja laughed. “He wants totakeyou, if you know what I mean.”

Kolfinna blinked. “That’s what it means?”

“Yes, totally,” Herja said with a nod before frowning. As if realizing she was talking to Kolfinna. “If a man says he wants to make you his, I don’t think he’s thinking the innocent kind of way.”

“Anyway.” Inkeri cleared her throat. “We kissed a bit and then … he threw up all over me.”

Kolfinna couldn’t help the laugh that slipped from her mouth; it mingled with Herja’s shriek of laughter. Even Inkeri chuckled a bit.

When their laughter subsided, Inkeri spoke again. Her tone took a sharper turn. “But here’s thebestpart. He had been so very drunk that the next day, he hadzerorecollection of what happened. I feel so stupid thinking back on it. I even asked him the next day if he wanted to do anything together—and I meant more like, you know, courting each other, eating together, or something—and he looked at me so confusedly and asked me, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’” She groaned and fell back onto her pillow with a long sigh. “Do you know how absolutely mortifying that is?”

Kolfinna lifted her brows. She remembered the way Ivar had cradled Inkeri’s body when those monstrous snakes had bitten her, the desperation on his face when he’d asked Kolfinna to save her. “Did you try talking to him about it?”

“Not after that, no.” Inkeri propped herself back up and blew out the strands of hair covering her face.

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