Page 82 of Night Meets the Elf Queen (The Elf Queen #4)

VALEEN

W aiting on the shelf near the foundry was Lightbringer. In the dull light it didn’t look remarkable, but it would be the thing that saved the elves of Palenor. She took the two pieces of Lightbringer off the shelf and held one in each hand.

To make it just as strong as before she’d have to melt down both pieces and reforge the entire blade, which would take weeks to smooth and perfect. And with Hel and Thane attacking Pricilla, they didn’t have that kind of time.

She set the pieces on the anvil and turned to Katana. Her sister picked up the flower vase to toss out the old ones and replace them with the new bunch of daisies and poppies she’d plucked on their way here.

“I need you to heat the two broken ends so I can overlay them and meld them back together. It will save time.”

Katana’s brows puckered. “But it will be swollen on the spot.”

“We don’t have time to do it properly. It would take weeks at least to melt it down and remake it as it should be.”

“Interesting. I had not heard that it takes that long.” Her lavender eyes were hollow today and her smile was nowhere to be found. Valeen probably looked the same, if not worse. Both of the males they loved and cared for were off to war.

“How are things with Thane? Last we talked, you seemed unsure.”

She broke into a smile and said, “He came to me yesterday.” Her palms emitted a bright orange light, and it wasn’t long before the two ends were glowing hot and ready to be molded.

Valeen smiled as she set the bottom piece slightly on top of the main and swung the hammer. The ching and clanking of metal hitting metal filled the room. Sparks flew, pelting against her thick blacksmith’s apron; a few tiny holes burned into her sleeves. “And? You can’t end it there.”

She tucked her hair behind her ears and beamed. “Alright, fine. He told me he was just scared but that he does want to be with me. I–I love him, Val and he loves me. I don’t even know how it happened. I just…I have to be near him.”

Valeen’s chest warmed and she swung the hammer again. There was something special about them together, she’d seen it with her own eyes. What she wanted more than anything was for both of them to be happy and now they were.

Katana walked over to the window and tugged the old curtain aside.

“It’s too dreary in here. And hot. I’m sweating.

” She pushed open the window, letting in a breeze, then took her hair into her hands and tied it in a knot on her head.

A sun tattoo was centered between her shoulder blades.

It was a hollow circle, about the size of a small apple, in black ink with curling and twisting sun rays spreading out from it.

A straight thin line came out from the center top and bottom, ending in three tiny dots.

“When did you get a tattoo? I don’t remember you having one before.” She turned Lightbringer over and struck again.

She turned around to face her with a hand on her hip. “What tattoo?”

With a chuckle, Valeen stopped hammering and let the tool fall to her side. “The only tattoo you have.”

“I don’t have a tattoo.”

“You have a sun tattoo on your back. Did you forget about it?” Her hair was always down so she hadn’t noticed it before.

“No…” she tried to look over her shoulder. “I can’t see anything.”

Valeen set the sword and hammer down. There was no mirror in here, but the shiny silver platter they’d brought with snacks would work. She pushed the fruit, nuts and cheeses onto a cloth and held up the platter.

Katana gasped when she saw it. “How did that get there! It wasn’t there before…”

Valeen looked at her puzzled, and then it hit her. “You slept with Thane.”

“Yeah.” She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “He didn’t tattoo me if that’s what you’re saying.”

“Does he have one?”

“I never saw one on him.”

“You swear this wasn’t here before?”

“It wasn’t! I would remember getting a tattoo,” Katana almost shrieked. Her voice always rose higher when she was nervous. “Why are you asking about Thane?”

“Long ago, when I searched for answers as to why my lily appeared on my arm, one of the things that Presco had found was that both mates would receive the same mark. Hel has the same one on his chest. For us, it was because I tried to kill him.” Valeen paused when Katana raised her brows.

“I know, it was a different time, anyway, most often soulmates are marked when they became… one.”

“All Mother above… my hair glowed when we… but it can’t be. I didn’t see a tattoo on him.” She started mumbling, “Of course I wasn’t looking at every inch of him.”

Valeen blew out a slow breath. If they were mates it might explain why Thane was drawn to her in Katana’s absence…What were the chances that the sister goddesses of day and night were mated to cousins who were more like brothers?

It actually made her laugh. Of course, it should be that way. All along Thane had been perfect for Katana. All along Valeen and Hel and Thane were drawn together, until Katana could return.

“Will you heat this again?”

Still muttering Katana made her way over and the blade glowed hot.

She went back to hammering and only got in a handful of hard swings before a shadow moved past the front window. A chill ran through her and her gut said it was someone dangerous. An assassin sent by Pricilla while Hel and Thane were away?

“Katana, push that table in front of the door.” She kept furiously swinging the hammer until sweat beaded on her brow.

“Why?” she asked but she quickly moved to the table and the legs scraped loudly across the stone. “What’s wrong?”

“I think there’s someone outside.”

“It’s the city. There are people everywhere.” She shoved it against the door then brushed her palms together wiping away dust.

Pounding on the door startled her and she missed the sword, cracking the hammer into the anvil.

They went silent.

Valeen tried to see who was there from the window, but it was the wrong angle.

Fists slammed into the door again. Katana and Valeen exchanged a glance.

“Yes?” Valeen finally said. Maybe it was just someone looking for a blacksmith.

“Where are my two favorite goddesses?” cooed an eerily familiar voice.

Katana backed further into the room but didn’t take her eyes off the door. “Val… it’s… it’s…” With a whimper she took out a dagger and moved closer to her sister.

Valeen stilled for only a moment then turned the sword over and started hammering on the other side. “I know,” was all she said.

“How did he get out?”

The door handle jiggled then a moment later nails scraped on the wood. “Goddess of night, goddess of day, please open the door. I want to play,” Synick said in a sing-song voice.

“Heat this again. Hurry.” It was still too thick and cooling too fast. With a glowing orange blade once again, she swung. Sweat slid down the back of her neck with the effort, but it was finally taking the form she needed. I need you, Lightbringer. This city and the elves need you.

Pounding started on the door again, this time harder, like a boot slamming against it rather than a fist.

“Valeen,” Katana yelped. She almost tripped on the lip of a stone slab in retreat.

“Don’t give him the satisfaction of being afraid.

You’re the goddess of day. Act like it.” Now wasn’t the time to be soft on Katana.

She couldn’t be the scared little lamb when there were wolves at the door.

That was what got her killed before. Katana snapped her head toward Valeen as if she’d struck her.

“Your problem isn’t that you’re incapable of being a terrifying threat, it's that you don’t believe you are one.

Be something to fear, Katana, and you won’t be preyed upon.

There is a time to be the soft petals of a rose and a time to be its thorns. ”

Katana’s mouth hung open and she blinked in surprise, but she needed to hear it.

“It’s almost ready.” Valeen plunged the blade into the bucket of cold water.

It sizzled and steamed. Pulling it free, she inspected it in the window’s light.

It was far from perfect, and she’d never want to show it off for craftsmanship, but it would have to do.

“Now, mark it with your magic. Give it a piece of you.”

With a firm nod, Katana’s glowing fingertip etched a sun into the metal then she blew her breath over it. A tingle of her power fluttered across Valeen’s skin like a summer breeze.

She didn’t have a touch that could etch metal, so she pricked her finger on the point of the blade and wiped her blood across the already existing elvish runes that read “Lightbringer”. “With this I give you a piece of me to connect with the moons’ power and mine.”

The door burst open, sending the table crashing into the wall, and a shadowy figure stepped into the frame.

Someone must have let him out. Someone must be with him to give him the confidence to come here and not run away. She swore under her breath, the guard tasked with dosing him every few hours must be dead too.

Valeen half stepped in front of Katana and pointed Lightbringer at Synick.

The decayed half of his face was covered in a black mask.

His sandy-blond hair was tied back into a sleek ponytail.

She dropped her gaze to his hand and the weapon he held.

A rose-gold sword with an amber stone in the pommel.

Her stomach plummeted to her toes; that was the Sword of Truth.

The very weapon he’d used to kill Katana…

“Well, well, we meet again.” His voice made the hairs all over her body rise, a warning of the danger.

Valeen scanned behind him, looking for his accomplice. There was no way he was alone. She quickly passed Lightbringer to Katana. “Go out the back and find Night. Take the sword to the top of the ridge. I’ll meet you there.”

“I can’t leave you.”

“Go.”

She slowly backed up, eyes darting from Valeen to Synick. “Val,” she choked.

“Don’t leave,” Synick purred. “The party is only beginning. I always had a fantasy about having you both writhing under me at the same time.”

Valeen conjured Zythara and the golden blade glinted. There was no one she hated more than this male. No one who deserved to be sent to the afterlife more than him. But she couldn’t let anger and fury get in her head. Calm and calculated was the way.

“Oh, your goddess sword… not Soulender.” He brought the rose-gold sword up and inspected its blade. “It’s not a match for the Sword of Truth.”

“I’m surprised you came alone, given how this went the last two times you and I met.” Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Katana still standing in the same place.

“I’m not alone.” He glanced over his shoulder and several of those undead creatures he’d conjured before stepped into the sunlight outside the door. “But they won’t come in unless I want them to.”

“How did you get out of your cell?”

“I have powerful friends in high places.” His shit-brown eyes flicked to Katana for the briefest of moments. Then he took a step closer. If he expected her to retreat, he was wrong. She raised her chin.

Valeen suddenly felt ill. He’d looked at Katana for a reason, it was a tell. “What do you want? You should be running away, coward.”

“Well, I did have to do something for my freedom. But I might be willing to forgo the bargain I made if you agree to give me what I’ve always wanted.

An heir of pure primordial blood. The goddess of night’s first child.

” His tongue flickered across his bottom lip.

“A blood oath will do, one that will force you to comply. The council will be all too eager to welcome me back as the head member. Pricilla, goddess of the hunt, is my daughter, you know. There isn’t anywhere she wouldn’t find you, but I have the power to call this whole thing off. Even get you your immortality.”

“I’d stab myself through the heart I’d ever let you touch me.”

He let out a dark chuckle. “Well, I’ll just take her instead then.

” He lunged toward Katana and Valeen struck out.

He brought his blade up to meet hers and they cracked with a spark, followed by a powerful blast that threw them apart.

Valeen crashed into the anvil and Synick was thrown onto the table behind him.

“Stay away from her,” Valeen growled. She turned her head ever so slightly to tell Katana to get out.

“Valeen!” Katana screeched.

She whipped her head back but a blast of cold hit her before she could shift to shadow.

Ice rushed across her body, keeping her from being able to change forms. It stopped only when it got to her neck.

Her arm was frozen, holding the sword raised high.

Her vines were slow to grow, as if the ice affected them too…

This was why Hel couldn’t get out of the ice storm. It slowed magic.

He trampled her small vines under his boots and marched toward her.

The point of the Sword of Truth pressed against her throat.

Her heart crashed wildly in her chest. Just a little push and she’d be gone forever.

“Hmm, what to do with you, my sweet pet. Killing you would be a waste of such divine beauty. Besides, I can’t kill the future mother of my heir.

” He stroked the side of her face, and she spat at him.

He smiled and swiped the saliva off his cheek then licked it from his palm. “That’s just the first taste.”

“You’re disgusting.” Valeen’s upper lip curled. The ice-cold temperature encasing her body finally set in and her teeth began to chatter.

“Once this is cleared up,” he waved to the mask, “you won’t say that.”

Her sister was still here. “Katana, go get Presco!”

A line of ice cut across the floor and formed around her feet and ankles, locking her in place. “No, we’re still waiting for my friend to show up. He’s looking for you. I said I’d help.”

Oh no no no no , Valeen’s gut ached… a powerful friend in high places looking for Katana. This friend had to be Atlanta.

Synick dropped the sword point from her throat and leaned in, bringing his putrid face closer and closer. It didn’t matter if he wore a mask to cover the rotten decay, she smelt it and knew what was there.

Ugh, gods, no, he is going to kiss me! She reared her head back then threw it forward and slammed her forehead into his mouth.

The crack and his hiss were pure satisfaction.

She didn’t even mind that he struck her across the face after.

The sting barely registered. Before he could do anything else, she fought harder to break free of his ice.

Whispers of her shadows crept from her hair.

The ice encasing her began to groan and splinter.

Heat abruptly flooded the room, and the ice began to melt in rivers at her feet. Synick glanced behind Valeen, furrowing his brows. “Don’t tell me you suddenly grew a backbone, Katana.”

A ray of light as bright as the sun, burst and Valeen slammed her eyes shut.