Page 67 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

Birgitta turned her face away from it. “I would never!”

“I guess we’ll wait then.” Sijur looked down at her. “I’m very curious to see what will happen. Will you die if you continue to refuse me, or will you succumb to the pain and obey? I guess we will see which is stronger.”

Kolfinna’s thoughts raced and she realized she had been locking her knees for minutes now. She couldn’t let this continue. She closed her eyes to think past the horrible screams, but she couldn’t come up with anything. The only logical path her brain kept directing her to was to kill Sijur—because wouldn’t everything stop once he was out of the equation? The runes couldn’t work if he was dead. And it wasn’t like he had added a clause to Kolfinna’s rune to make it so she never hurt him, so she could do it, hypothetically. However, itwasn’ta logical choice at all.

But it was tempting and a part of her mind told her that she was already a murderer, so more blood staining her hands didn’t matter.

Kolfinna banished those thoughts. Killing Sijur would only complicate her position.

“There has to be another way,” Kolfinna said above the woman’s wailing. Even to her own ears, she sounded desperate and helpless.

Sijur acted like he didn’t hear her and instead strolled over to his couch and plopped down on it. He grabbed a cookie, propped his feet up on the coffee table, and leaned into the cushions.

The young boy, Aksel, ran over from his corner, tears and snot running down his face. He fell on his knees beside his mother. He shook her, but she only spasmed more, her screams becoming shriller. “Momma! Momma!” The boy turned to Kolfinna with teary eyes. “Do something! Please! You’re supposed to help, aren’t you?” He turned his pleas to Joran, who only backed away farther, as if wanting to shrink into the wall. “Please! Help her!”

Kolfinna’s chest tightened painfully. She wasn’t in the room anymore. She was back in time when Lord Estur had killed Katla and how, later that night, she had cried and cried because she had lost her only family. And right now, if Kolfinna didn’t do anything, this little boy would experience the same thing.

The thought alone spurred her into action. She dropped down beside Birgitta and took the woman’s hand. Birgitta instantly tried to wrench it away, but Kolfinna held on tighter, so tight that her hand turned white. Mana seeped from Kolfinna’s body. The little boy sobbed harder.

You will no longer feel pain.

She poured the mana into the runes. She didn’t care what Sijur or Joran thought. She didn’t care what would happen to her. She didn’t think about any of that.

One thing the Royal Guards had taught her was that it was her duty to protect the people. And there was no way she would let this woman suffer when there was something she could do about it.

“What are you doing?” Sijur demanded from his spot on the couch. He planted his feet on the tiled floor and leaned forward, his expression pinched together.

In her peripheral vision, Joran paled significantly.

Kolfinna poured more of her mana into the woman. Sweat beaded her forehead. The words didn’t appear, but she had to keep pushing until they did.

“Stop, Kolfinna! I order you tostop!”

Sijur’s angry voice sent a jolt of pain up her wrist. Kolfinna cried out, her focus slipping, but she kept her hand secured on the woman’s. Kept her attention on the little boy. She concentrated on him and on the runes. She thought about Katla and her own parents that she didn’t remember. She thought about the day she had lost Katla and how her world had turned upside down. She thought about how disappointed Katla would’ve been in her if she did nothing.

Her wrist was on fire. She doubled over the woman, her control over her mana shifting wildly.

Focus,focus.

But it was so hard to focus when it felt like someone was lighting her arm on fire. Like someone was dragging a knife up her arm and slicing ribbons of her flesh off her body like she was a slab of cooking meat. She wanted to scream, wanted to forget about what she was doing, wanted to abandon the woman?—

Katla, she thought.Think of Katla.

She thought of her sister’s vivid green eyes that were always full of kindness. Her laughter that lightened the room. Her smile that radiated?—

“Kolfinna!” Joran shoved Kolfinna back with a violent force, sending her sprawling on the floor. Her head cracked against the tiles and she gasped in pain. She blinked back to find Joran’s deep jade eyes trained on her, his face hovering a few inches away from her own. His tan skin was crinkled with worry linesand he was nearly pleading with her. “Stop what you’re doing! You’ll die if you keep this up!”

The pain was already ebbing away now that Kolfinna wasn’t disobeying Sijur. She pushed herself into a sitting position, but Joran pinned her shoulders down in place.

“Let me go!” Her shouts mingled with the woman’s cries. “I can’t be an accomplice in this! I don’t care if the runes hurt me. I can’t let you do this to that woman!”

Even as he kept his full weight on her shoulders, he had the decency to look guilty. She tried shoving him off her, but when that didn’t work, she brought her knee up to his groin, hard. Joran gasped and instinctively released her. It was all the time she needed to push him off her.

Birgitta’s hand clasped around the handle of the knife.

Kolfinna’s eyes widened.

No.

---