Page 128 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

Sijur had called her by her name.

Her stomach clenched tightly.

“You …” The half-elf spoke to her this time, and there was a calmness to his voice that reminded her of an upcoming storm. It chilled her down to her bones.

He knew.

He slowly straightened, the air around him continuing to shift with dark mana. Kolfinna couldn’t see his expression, only those cold, soulless red eyes. For some reason, that made him even more terrifying to behold—the fact that she had no idea what he was thinking or what expression he wore.

Was he gleeful at finally catching her? Was he thrilled at being one step closer to freeing his queen?

“Let them go,” Kolfinna said suddenly. Whatever mana she had flared at her fingertips. She couldn’t see beyond Blár’s injured body lying on the ground. She had never thought she would see him like this. Not since the Nuckelavee attack, and certainly not when facing a foe with his ice magic.

“Come quietly,” the half-elf said. “We?—”

“Not happening.” Her voice was shrill with panic.

“Kolfinna—” Blár was a foot away from the half-elf, but he didn’t seem to have the strength to sit up, much less stand. It seemed it was taking all his strength to even speak, to keep himself on his knees. “Please, run.”

“No!” she shouted. “I’m not leaving you!”

“Kol—”

Kolfinna wrenched a stone from the ground and shot it at the half-elf. He didn’t even flinch and before the stone could slam into him, it stopped midair and floated there. Kolfinna blinked. He had taken control of the stone.Just like that.

He didn’t look away from her and she watched in horror as the stone crumbled to dust and pebbles.

“Kolfinna.” Blár’s eyes fluttered closed and he collapsed on the partially frozen ground.

“Blár!” Kolfinna ran toward him, but a wall of shadows surrounded her in seconds. She fought against them, her own shadows spreading out in defense, but the inky smoke captured her in seconds. She struggled against the shadowy grip, the whips of ink waving over her eyes. Finally, they calmed enough for her to see again.

The half-elf sighed. She couldn’t make out his face due to the helmet, and only his red eyes were visible as he stared at her. “I do not wish to fight you,” he murmured, and she almost didn’t hear it from the backdrop of war—with people screaming in pain and the blasts of magic going off. “It is a … complicated matter. We must speak—you and I.”

“Let me go!” Kolfinna cried, the shadows leaching off her remaining mana. Unlike Rakel’s merciless grip that had squeezed all the air out of her, his shadows did no such thing. But they were worse than Rakel’s because no amount of her own mana, her uncontrollable shadows, or her magic worked. In fact, she couldn’t doanything.

She struggled against the shadows nonetheless, screaming and grunting and trying to loosen herself. The half-elf only watched.

“Kolfinna.” Sijur pushed himself to his feet. “Kill yourself.Now.”

Her eyes widened.What?

Had she heard right? She couldn’t have, but then the rune mark on her wrist burned and excruciating pain wracked her body. She threw her head back, pain swelling and shooting up her arm and feeling as though her flesh was burning from the inside out.

Kill herself? Why would he order such a thing?

Tears filled her vision and she fought against the pain, but it was too much.

“Why?” she choked out.

Sijur coughed and fell to his knees. “Sorry … Nothing personal, Kolfinna …” He coughed again. The right side of his chainmail was shredded and revealed his uniform, which was slick and darkened with blood. “But it’s better to have you dead than to have you on the enemy side. Do forgive me for this. I suppose this is the end for both of us, hm? Or maybe all three of us.”

All three of us— because if she didn’t listen to Sijur, she would die. And if shedidlisten, then, well, she was dead.

“You tethered her to you?” the half-elf asked. His voice was controlled and unbothered, but there was a hint of hardness there. Like he was displeased. Or maybe she was looking toodeep into something that wasn’t there. Maybe the pain was making her hear things.

It was so intense that it had her on her hands and knees, writhing on the ground. It took her a moment to realize the half-elf had relinquished his hold on her because she wasn’t chained by his shadows. But it didn’t matter because she couldn’t focus beyond the haze of pain consuming her.

A hand grasped her chin, and all of a sudden, the pain ebbed away and she was staring into cold, merciless, blood-red eyes framed with thick, white lashes. Where his gloved hand touched, her skin was warm and it took her a few seconds to realize that he had used rune magic on her, the same way she had used it on Birgitta.

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