Page 34 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen
A deep coldness swept over her and she froze. She was reminded of how it felt to wield the evil blade. How it had longed to shed blood, how it had forced her to fight against her will, and how it had controlled her body. She didn’t want to be anywhere near it again.
“Why?” she asked.
“You are the heir,” he said as if it was obvious.
“But … But why? Am I going into battle with you?” It sounded ridiculous—why did she need to learn how to use that weapon if she was their enemy? Why would they want her to become stronger? It didn’t make sense, but then it clicked to her. “Wait—am I supposed to free the queen with theDød Sværd?Is that why I have to learn to use it?”
The instant she had wielded theDød Sværdall those weeks ago, Vidar and his armies had been freed from their slumber, so it only made sense that it was tied to where the queen was sealed away. Was there a physical barrier that needed to be cut down with theDød Sværd?Or was the only condition to free the queen was that she needed to be good at using it?
Vidar chewed his food, delaying his answer as he stared at her with those red, red eyes, which only seemed more intense with the white lashes that framed them. Finally, he swallowed. “Yes.”
“I refuse.” Kolfinna tightened her hold on her knife.
Everyone froze, gazes moving to her, and then to Vidar.
The tension in the room thickened.
“You have no choice.” Vidar’s voice came out low, and his wings twitched. The air around him seemed electrifying and heavy.
“No choice?” She licked her lips. “I fail to see how you can force me.”
She couldn’t free the queen—she simply couldn’t aid them in that way and curse the whole of Rosain in the process. It sickened her to know that she was an integral part in all of this. That they needed her. She would rather be an unimportant foot soldier than shoulder all of these responsibilities and guilt.
Vidar smiled slowly, and it sent a shiver down her spine. The scars on his face appeared to distort as he tilted his head to the side. “Kolfinna, you should not challenge me. I have manymethods with which to make you cooperate. Do you truly wish for me to exhaust them all?”
He was bluffing. He had to be.
“I don’t want to free your queen,” she said, though it came out small.
“You have no choice,” Rakel said icily.
Vidar continued to eat to his meal, his expression schooled to indifference. “I seem to remember a certain human who you seemed to be in love with. What was his name? I never did catch that as I fought him.”
Kolfinna’s blood ran cold.
“You are aware I could have killed him, yes?” He stared at her. “I kept him alive because he had a vast supply of mana, and I knew that would be useful. I miscalculated, I suppose. I should have kept him with me the entire time, and used his broken body as a way to get you to cooperate. I can still arrange for it.”
“You … You wouldn’t.”
He pierced the roasted chicken on his plate loudly with his knife, leaving it to stick out. “You know nothing of what I am capable of, Kolfinna. Especially when it concerns my wife.”
She bunched her trembling hands together. Would Vidar really find Blár and use him against her? She could imagine he could, but … but she had to believe that Blár wasn’t that easily found, or beaten. Vidar might have bested him in battle, once, but it wouldn’t be so easy the next time. A budding headache throbbed at the back of her mind.
“We don’t even have to go that far,” Agnarr said with a short, cruel laugh. He dropped another cleaned bone onto his plate, and took a swig from his cup. His emerald-like eyes connected with hers, and she found only viciousness in them. “Since she loves humans so much, we can simply round up and kill as many as it takes for her to listen. Oh, and perhaps we can string up their bodies outside her tower so that whenever she looks outher window, she sees the people whose deaths now stain her name. I could easily arrange for it, Commander Alfaer.”
“We are not so barbaric that we would do such a thing,” Freyja scoffed. “There are other methods.”
Agnarr lowered his cup from his mouth and sneered, “Do not pretend to have a heart now, Freyja darling.”
“I am not yourdarling,” she hissed.
They continued to hurl sharp-tongued insults at one another, but Kolfinna could barely make out the words, her mind muddled with horror at the thoughts of all the humans they could, potentially, kill in order for her to listen. She didn’t want to know what they were capable of.
Freyja slammed her metal cup on the table, her sharp eyes blazing with animosity as she jerked up to her feet. “You and me, outside,now. The only way I see fit for your hateful, disgusting mouth to be sealed shut is if I bloody it to a pulp.”
“Always prone to violence.” Agnarr rose to his feet, downing his drink and banging it on the table. “Fine, but I remember winning our last bout. Are you sure you wish to quarrel with me when you are in a weaker state?”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “Weaker state?”
