Page 113 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen
It was a taunt meant to piss off the male, but it didn’t do anything. In fact, it only made him grin.
In his peripheral, Blár could make out his ice walls slowly rising from the ground and connecting with the pillars. He needed a bigger distraction if he wanted to cage the fae before he noticed.
“I also learned quite a bit about you,” he continued.
Agnarr lifted a blonde eyebrow. “Is that so?”
“Did you know? About General Freyja, I mean.”
Thatpiqued Agnarr’s interest, and he lowered his sword just a fraction. Blár shot forward and struck him, but he dodged it with ease. They exchanged a few more strikes, and a guarded, lethal expression covered the male’s face.
“What are you talking about?” Agnarr asked.
It was just like Kolfinna had said; he seemed to care about the female general—maybe evenloveher. They were mates, after all, even if they seemed to argue all the time. Even if they gave off the impression that they loathed one another.
Blár stared at him. He hoped this was enough to distract him.
“She’s carrying your child.”
Agnarr’s eyebrows came together. “What did you say?”
In the split second that his guard was down, Blár dove backward, his ice crackling through the air instantly. It connected with the other pillars and he created a ceiling within the next second. Agnarr flew up at breakneck speed, but it was too late: the ice caged him in. Blár backed away until he was against one of the ice walls. Agnarr struck the ice ceiling with his fist, the runes exploding on impact, but the ice remained intact. Blár touched the ice wall and walked right through it, the ice wall repairing itself once he was on the other side.
Agnarr turned sharply to him. The bluish-white ice walls made him appear even more ominous. He struck the ice again and again with the rune explosions, and a tiny crack formed onone of the walls. Blár stared at it in astonishment, but then his expression darkened.
He was a powerful fae if he could crack Blár’s ice. This room would only keep him for an hour at most, but that was all the time Blár needed to find the king and Kolfinna and get them both out of here. As much as he would have loved to turn the tide of the battle, the capital was completely overrun with fae and they didn’t stand a chance at the moment. They needed to regroup with the king and Fenris, and then create a plan.
The capital was lost.
Blár began running in the direction of the castle. His gaze flicked over the destruction in the streets. The fae fought the dwindling guards, but more of them were beginning to flee. They all seemed to know that the battle was lost. That only urged him to go faster. If the half-elf was engaging with Fenris in battle, then the king must have been safe somewhere.
So long as Leiknir lived, they could figure something out. They didn’t need a civil war or a fight for power at this time. They needed a king, even if that king was otherwise useless.
His face stung as he ran, and now that the thrill of battle was fading, his cheek throbbed painfully. He still couldn’t hear properly from his left ear.
He needed to find Kolfinna. Just thinking about her made his chest tighten. Was she safe? He hated having to leave her with the half-elf. He hated having to be forced into battle rather than rushing to her side. He hated being apart from her.
But he was close to the castle now. He was close to her?—
The castle began to glow gold.
Blár’s eyes widened. Runes?
An ominous chill reverberated through his bones and he knew that something was very, very wrong.
He picked up his pace and his breathing grew labored, his gaze never straying from the castle. Kolfinna was in there. Heneeded to find her and get her the hell away from here. He didn’t trust the half-elf enough to keep her safe.
“Blár Vilulf!” a royal guard was running toward him. “Blár Vilulf!”
Blár slowed in his steps. “Where is she?”
“Who?”
“Kolfinna! The fae?—”
The guard shook his head. “Captain Asulf is fighting the half-elf right now! He saw Princess Aslaug during the battle.”
“What? Who?” Blár’s mind was running a mile a minute, and he glanced back at the castle. Aslaug. That was his mother’s name, but he hadn’t known there was a princess named Aslaug too. Wasn’t the king’s daughter’s name something else? He couldn’t remember it.
