Page 70 of Night Meets the Elf Queen (The Elf Queen #4)
KATANA
A s soon as the door shut behind Hel, guilt started to eat away at her.
While she was in the north with the dragons, she’d slept with the elf her sister was once going to marry, and again while Valeen was fighting for her life in the underrealm.
She needed to talk to her before she found out another way.
“I’m going to hop into the bath really quick,” Valeen said. “I look clean, but I don’t feel it. I need to scrub that evil place off me. You can wait here if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, sure.” Katana sat on the bench at the end of Valeen’s bed.
Water splashed in the bathing champers. It wasn’t long later she heard her sister get in. “Ugh, it feels good to be back. I never want to go there again.”
“I wouldn’t either.” Katana’s stomach began to twist. “Are you hungry? I can go get you something to eat.”
“No, stay and talk to me. My stomach can wait. What happened while you were gone?” Her voice sounded echoey from the other room.
“Um,” she nervously pushed her hair behind her ears. The confession was on the tip of her tongue but then she remembered Atlanta and decided it was more important. “Well, Atlanta came. He and Thane got into a fight. Thane slapped him in the face. It was… actually amazing to see.”
Water splashed and she imagined her sister bolting upright. “Did he try to take you?”
“He would have, yes.”
“That prick. When this is over, I’m going after him.”
She smiled even though she hated violence. It was nice to be loved and protected. “I told him you would. It’s why he left. He fears you.”
“As he should.”
Katana giggled. “Thane wasn’t afraid of him. I was surprised.”
“No, he wouldn’t be. Especially if he was protecting you. He would do anything for his friends.”
“I gathered that.” The word friend hit harder than it should. That was what she was to Thane, a friend, although she wished it was more. Did friends sleep together? Did friends think about each other all the time? No. “Val…”
“Yeah?”
“I need to tell you something and I don’t know how you will feel about it.” Sweat dampened her skin, and she suddenly found it harder to breathe.
“You can tell me anything.”
“I…” she went quiet for a few beats. “I made love with Thane. In Ryvengaard, and once when we got back.”
Silence. Dead silence.
Shaking. Her hands were suddenly shaking.
“It didn’t really mean anything. We agreed it was nothing. It was lust mostly, and I think I was just someone to help his loneliness.”
More silence.
Katana wished she could see her sister’s face to at least get some idea of what she was thinking, but she stayed seated on the bench and stared at the wall. “Are you angry?”
“No,” Valeen answered finally. “I’m just… I don’t know what I feel. Was it truly nothing?”
“For his part.”
“Katana,” Valeen sounded almost sad. “You’re hurt?”
“No.” That was the first lie she’d told. “I knew what I was getting myself into.”
The smell of florals and perfume from the bath soap filled the air. “You care about him. I saw it even before you left. Of course, I don’t blame you, Thane is… a beautiful person. I loved him too, and I want him to be happy.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “I don’t know if I could say I love him. And he made it clear he doesn’t want love.”
“He needs time.”
“You didn’t.”
The water splashed again and this time it sounded like she was getting out.
A moment later she popped around the corner, wrapped in a white linen.
“I had shed my fair share of tears for weeks. I had months to spend with Hel before I even remembered him. Months to get over Thane. And I fell in love with Hel when we were away and when I remembered everything, it entirely changed the way I thought about Thane. Thane has never loved someone the way I love Hel. Thane and I were forced into a relationship with each other through a spell that his parents ordered. We had to fall in love. I don’t know if we would have otherwise. ”
“Maybe you wouldn’t have.” Katana sat taller. “Because he didn’t just love you in this life. He loved you in the others too.” Saying that out loud made her realize how much of a fool she was to have let herself feel anything for Thane, let alone be intimate with him.
Valeen’s blue eyes glittered in the sunlight filtering in through the windows. She pushed her black hair back. “I’m not denying it was real, because it was… we just both changed.”
“How can you be so… nonchalant about Thane and I sleeping together? Does it not bother you at all?” She flinched waiting for the inevitable confession her sister was upset about it.
But surprisingly, she chuckled and started going through her drawers.
“It did sort of make my stomach drop when you first said it, but it wasn’t feelings of jealousy.
It’s hard to explain, but I was a different person when I loved him.
” Glancing over her shoulder, she suddenly grinned.
“It sounds a little strange given our past, but I know how good he is, and I know how good you are, and I think you are perfect for each other. And if you were together, we’d all stay close.
” She tugged out a black long-sleeved top.
“Now, if you went after Hel, this conversation would be very different.”
Katana was grinning. “Oh, I have no attraction to Hel,” Katana said, then raised her palms in defense. “He’s handsome, don’t get me wrong, but he’s—dark. And I’m—not. You know what I mean.”
Valeen laughed. “I do. Oh, and I need to go talk to Presco. He’s no doubt still upset that Hel threw him back out of the underrealm.”
It was fun to think of her and Valeen in relationships with cousins who were as close as brothers, the only problem with that was she didn’t want to forever live in Valeen’s shadow.
She didn’t want to be Thane’s second choice, always wondering in the back of her mind if he were given the chance, would he get back with Valeen.
That was how she’d felt all her life with Atlanta.
“Let’s go get Presco, eat our fill in the kitchen, and plan something fun tonight. After being in the underrealm I bet you need a stiff drink and some upbeat music. Dancing cures all.” Katana wiggled her hips and stretched her arms overhead.
Valeen smiled. “I know just the place.”