Page 97 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

We will reunite you with your father, Kolfinna Viðarsdóttir.

Viðarsdóttir—daughter of Vidar.

Kolfinna quickly stepped on the dust and disrupted it. Not that Blár could read it, but she didn’t want that name staring up at her in that empty room. She spun to face Blár, hoping her expression wasn’t as panicked as she felt.

“She’s gone. The elf woman was being kept in here, but she’sgone.”

The room shook again and from above, Kolfinna could make out distant cries and bangs. There must’ve been a fight going on, and if Rakel was up there … Blár wasprobablythe only one who stood a chance.

“We need to capture her,” Kolfinna said, heading back to the office. “We need to stop her.”

21

Kolfinna would probably never forgetthe sound of large, flapping wings—not the kind that belonged to monster birds. It was such a foreign sound—the whoosh of air splitting, the powerful gusts that followed. And she would probably never forget the sight of a pair of wings attached to a man.

That was the first sight Blár and Kolfinna were met with when they emerged from the stairwell and into the main level of the fort. A man with large, feathery wings attached to his back, was flying in the lobby, twin silver blades gleaming with fresh blood in his hands. A dozen soldiers were on the floor, moaning in pain or morbidly still.

Time seemed to stand still.

He was a faewith wings.

And he wasn’t the only one. There was a gaping hole in one of the walls, leading to the courtyard. Blasts of fire and blue lightning lit up the purpling evening sky. Fae soldiers flew above the courtyard with feathery or gossamer wings. Black leathery armor covered their bodies, and they wore scaly black helmets. Stones crashed against soldiers, clashing against conglomerations of the elements whirring together in blurs of blue and white.

Kolfinna had never seen anything like it before. Yes, the fae had wings, but every fae had their wings cut off at a young age to stave attention from the hunters or the humans. It was so unknown to people about the fae having wings. But Blár didn’t let his confusion stop him from stepping forward into battle.

Ice splintered off the floors and rose in spears to jab into the closest flying fae. It dug through one of the wings of the feathery warrior and he went down quickly—but not quick enough. He raised his hand mid-fall, and dozens of stone spears shot out of the floor similar to Blár’s, but they pierced through any soldier trying to get close to him.

A hunk of stone hurtled toward Blár and Kolfinna grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back. Blár glanced down at her sharply, blue eyes hardened with battle.He didn’t need her help, she realized, and she would only slow him down or disrupt his flow.

“Sorry—” she started.

A wall of ice shot from the floor a foot away from her. She blinked. Three stone spears were frozen in place in the ice shield Blár had erected. The speed of Blár’s reaction spurred her out of her sluggish thoughts; she couldn’t be stuck on the fact that these warriors had wings. She had to push through. Focus.

“Stay with me—” Blár began, stepping in front of her.

“No, I have to find Rakel.” Kolfinna glanced over at the gaping hole in the wall. She could see snakes slithering on the ground, similar to the ones she had seen during Blár’s fight with the elf-woman.

“Kolfinna—”

Kolfinna was already pulling away from him. “I’ll be fine!”

The flying warriors were jarring to look at, but the only thing fueling her forward was the fear that Rakel would escape—and inevitably draw the half-elf commander here.

Kolfinna ducked away from wayward blasts of fire, lightning, and stones. She leaped over the ridges of the hole until she was out in the courtyard. The ground was pulled and dented and slightly burnt in various areas. Soldiers fought against black-leather-clad warriors. Some had a shock of white hair and blood-red eyes, similar to Rakel, while others were clearly fae with their feathery wings and brightly colored eyes.

A winged warrior swooped down close to her, a sharp sword aimed straight at her head. Kolfinna’s mana worked through the ground at her feet in a split second, and a tendril of gnarled roots flicked up above her, catching the edge of the blade. The warrior’s orange eyes widened.

Kolfinna dove away from him and ran through the thicket of soldiers and enemies. Her eyes roved over the sea of gray uniforms and black scaly ones.

A blast boomed behind her. Kolfinna turned just in time to find Herja emerging from one of the windows at the upper levels. Blue fire streaked from her hands and lit up the darkening, evening sky.

Kolfinna ducked when a stone spear hurtled her way. It crashed into the fort behind her. Kolfinna turned to find an elf warrior running to her with a sword in one hand. She barely had time to yank her own sword out of its scabbard and meet the elf’s blade. Steel bit steel, and the reverberation rattled up to her elbow.

The elf woman narrowed her blood-red eyes. “You are not human,” she snarled.

Their swords slammed into one another, again and again. “Neither,” Kolfinna said through gritted teeth, “are you!”

The woman pushed her back, strike after strike. Shadows slipped from the woman’s hands, blackening the hilt of her sword and leeching onto the silver edge of her blade. Kolfinna lurched backward as those shadows sprang forward. Wispsreached out to her and Kolfinna tried to avoid them, but as she focused on the shadows, the tip of the woman’s shadow-drenched sword jabbed straight into Kolfinna’s shoulder.

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