Page 95 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen
“Will it help you win the war? Is that why you need Aesileif?”
Vidar pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed out deeply. His magic stirred in the air, becoming darker and heavier, and Kolfinna practically choked on the intensity of it. When he snapped his eyes open, they were blank. “No, we don’tneedthat power to win this war. We need Aesileif because she is the queen, because having her here will raise morale, because she knows her people better than anyone else. Because …Ineed her.”
Kolfinna opened her mouth to say something, but Agnarr spoke before she could.
“I’m ready to move whenever you want me to, Vidar,” he said in a low voice, a grim frown twisting the corners of his mouth.
She couldn’t help the strange look she gave him. He had called Vidar by his first name. Not Commander Alfaer. But simply his name. She was so distracted by that—and the fact that they might have potentially been friends and forgone formalities in private—that his words almost didn’t register.
Was Agnarr going to leave for the military headquarters? If there were plans that they were going to discuss, she needed to tell Blár everything she learned here.
Vidar stared at Kolfinna and an uneasiness spread throughout her body. There was an intensity that rippled through the air, thickened by his dark mana. As ifsomethingwas going to happen. Like a coil ready to spring forward, or a taut band ready to snap. She could feel it down to her bones.
“What will you do, Kolfinna?” Vidar asked slowly, unblinkingly. “Will you join us or stay with the humans?”
She hesitated, not having expected those words. She opened her mouth to deny him, to tell him she wanted nothing to do with him and his army, but she wasn’t even sure what was right or wrong at this point. She knew the humans couldn’t be trustedas a whole, but she trusted Blár and the others, and it was hard to come to terms with the fact that Vidar’s people might be the hope the fae had been looking for all these centuries. Was she going to stand in the way of that?
He must have seen her reluctance as a win, because he turned sharply to Agnarr and gave a short nod. “Have Floki notified and move immediately as planned. Have your men ready.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, but Agnarr was already on the move; he left the room promptly.
Vidar headed to the window Agnarr had been peering out of and stared at the sky with an unreadable expression. “Kolfinna, did Aesileif speak to you?”
“No. I only saw her memories, like I already told you,” she said. “What did you mean when you told Agnarr to have his men ready? Is he going into battle?”
“Sit.”
“What?”
“Sit.” He pointed to one of the cushioned chairs. “We will stay here a while before it’s time to move. In the meantime, I need to speak with you.”
She didn’t want to listen to him, the defiant part of her wanting to resist everything he ordered for her, but the sword-dimension had drained her too much, and she couldn’t muster up any bravado or resistance. She eased into the closest seat, her tired limbs longing for the rest. As soon as she was sitting, the threads of sleep pulled at her heavy eyelids and it took everything within her to keep them open.
Vidar silently watched her for a while longer. She couldn’t bear to look at him, not with the confusion of everything she had witnessed.
“Will you free your mother?” his words came out levelly, coldly, and yet she could hear the hint of something else there. Something that beckoned her own vulnerability.
“I’m not aligning myself with you,” Kolfinna said after a moment. “But … I …”
He waited while she fidgeted with her hands.
She didn’t want Aesileif, her mother, to be locked away forever, never to be broken free from her restraints. After everything the poor woman had gone through, Kolfinna had to wake her, even if it meant making things harder for the humans. Even if it meant Blár would be angry at her. Even if … her alliances would become murky.
A pounding headache formed in the back of her mind and she screwed her eyes shut. Sleep—that was what she really needed right now.
“Yes,” she finally said, the word coming out of her like a grave betrayal. She hated how wishy-washy she was on both sides. To the humans, she was their ally, and yet they didn’t accept her—and likewise, she was suspicious of them. To the fae, she was their enemy, but she also wanted the best for her people like they did.
Her shoulders slumped in defeat at the warring in her conscience—at what was right and what was wrong. Eventually, she would have to choose a definite side. She couldn’t hop between the two and expect both sides to be fine with that.
But that was only because neither side wasgood enough, she told herself. The humans had their faults, as did the fae, and she was finding it harder and harder to reconcile with the former.
The silence stretched between them awkwardly. Kolfinna smoothed down the material of her tunic, her mind traveling back to the dimension where Vidar had looked younger,angrier.
“You were planning on leaving her. Why?”
Vidar blinked slowly, confusion swirling in his bloodlike eyes.
She pointed to his cheek. “The day you got your scar. Was it really because Elin said something? You told Aesileif that you were going to leave for battle and she?—”
