Page 20 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen (The Heartless and the Wicked #4)
TEN – KOLFINNA
Kolfinna dreamed of Blár—of his handsome smile, his snarky words, his charming laughter. She cried in her dreams, trying to race to him, trying to fall into his arms, but the more she ran, the further the distance between them grew.
She awoke to someone shaking her shoulder. When she peeled her gritty eyes open, the remnants of the dream still clinging to her, she squinted up at Astrid, who stood sheepishly beside her bed.
“Sorry to wake you,” the white-haired fae said. “It’s time for you to get ready for dinner.”
For a moment, Kolfinna was confused as to what she was talking about, but then everything slammed into her—the tower, Aslaug, dinner with Vidar—and she slowly sat upright, the towel almost falling off her shivering body.
She held it close to her; her hair was still wet, and she was colder now, the dampness seeping into her bones.
“I’d rather avoid dinner,” Kolfinna said, stretching her body. She remembered the last time she’d had dinner with Vidar, and how disastrous that had been—all they had done was argue.
“Why?” Astrid plucked the powder-blue dress Kolfinna had chosen and raised it up to examine it in the firelight. She frowned, tossing the dress back into the open trunk, and bent down to rifle through it. “You can’t wear something so simple. This is your first appearance as the princess.”
“It’s not my first appearance.” Kolfinna glanced over at Aslaug, who was flipping through her book again.
She was reading the beginning this time, and Kolfinna noted that before her nap, the poor woman had been near the end of the book.
Did she … have nothing better to do? Had she been rereading the same book for the past eight years?
A shiver ran down her spine at that thought.
“Well, it’s your first appearance to everyone stationed at this town.” She shrugged, pulling out a moss-colored dress with a cinched waistline, a heart-shaped neckline, and sleeves with golden leaves embroidered over them. She held it out to Kolfinna, nodding to herself. “This is perfect.”
“You people seem to obsess over the color green,” she mumbled, taking the dress from Astrid’s hands as she rose up to her feet. The previous dress she had worn had been a shade of green, too.
“We are fae—what do you expect?”
Astrid grabbed the corner of the towel and yanked it off. Kolfinna’s hands went straight to her breasts, her mouth hanging open in surprise as Astrid pooled the dress on the floor for her to step into.
“You—You can’t just do that.” Heat colored her cheeks and she quickly glanced at Aslaug, who was still reading, though Kolfinna wasn’t sure if she was forcing herself to do that to give her some privacy. “Astrid?—”
“What? We’re all women here. What’s the problem?” Astrid lifted an eyebrow and then motioned to the dress at her feet. “Come on. Step in.”
Kolfinna wanted to argue with her, but she also wanted to dress as quickly as possible, so she did as Astrid said, her cheeks still red with embarrassment.
She didn’t like being naked in front of anyone; she could just imagine what others would say about her body.
She was still shaken from how the Royal Guards had treated her.
Astrid pulled the dress up, pausing to lace the back. She pushed aside Kolfinna’s still-damp hair and her fingers brushed over the raised scars. “Something strange is happening with your back.”
“Ah, yes.” Kolfinna cringed as the woman laced her dress slowly. “Do you … have any idea what it might be?”
“You are part elf, so I imagine …” She went quiet.
“You imagine what?” She glanced over her shoulder to stare at the woman. “Astrid, what is it?”
Astrid finished tying the back of the dress and offered her a tight smile. “Your wings are likely growing back.”
Kolfinna felt all the color drained from her face as those words registered.
Astrid sat her down on the bed and began braiding and twisting her hair, sliding golden pins to keep it in place.
Kolfinna barely noticed the pull of her scalp, not with her mind spinning.
Her wings were growing back? That couldn’t be.
Although a part of her had always mourned the loss of her wings, she couldn’t imagine actually having them back.
It made her … all the more different than everyone.
Her ears, her hair, and now wings? How much more different was she going to become?
“Why?” she finally asked. “Why would they grow back now?”
“Elves have healing powers,” Astrid answered. “It is rare, but they can sometimes grow limbs back. You should be happy, grateful even. Most fae who’ve lost their wings lose them forever.” There was a hint of longing in her voice, but Kolfinna didn’t want to hear it.
She didn’t know why her throat tightened, nor why her eyes stung with unshed tears. It was like she didn’t know anything about herself anymore. Everything was a lie, even her appearance.
“It is a good thing.” Astrid’s voice grew small.
“I would love it if my …” She clamped her mouth shut, her lower lip trembling as she quickly blinked.
“Anyway, no need to look so down. It is a good thing, you know? To heal old wounds?” She pointed to Kolfinna’s leg.
“I saw your old scars. You were hurt pretty badly a while ago, weren’t you?
And now you’re healed. Isn’t that great? Your wings are the same.”
Kolfinna peered down at her feet and resisted the urge to raise the hem of her skirt to stare at the scars Blár had given her.
It felt like a lifetime ago. Back when she’d thought of him as nothing more than a cruel winter soldier, and he’d thought of her as a murderous fae.
Both of them enemies. She had been ridden with nightmares whenever she thought of his cold, cold blue eyes. And now … now she was in love with him.
Her throat thickened with emotion once more. She was finding herself more and more emotional these days, and she wasn’t sure what to think of it.
Astrid pulled back to examine her work; she had drawn Kolfinna’s hair into a low updo, with golden pins interwoven into her hair and two wavy strands framing her face. She nodded to herself, seeming pleased.
“You will be meeting the rest of Commander Alfaer’s generals today, so it will be in your best interest to appear … princess-like.”
Kolfinna fitted her clammy hands over the edge of the mattress, her toes curling against the frigid floors. “The rest of his generals? Have I already met some?”
“Yes. General Rakel.”
She remembered Rakel telling her that she was one of four generals under Vidar, but she had forgotten it until that moment. “The other three will also be there?”
“Oh, you know that there are four?”
“Rakel mentioned it. Who are the others?”
“Well, there is General Rakel, obviously. She is in charge of the elf unit. Then there is General Freyja, General Agnarr, and General Floki.” Astrid picked out a metal necklace from the trunk with tiny green gems running along its length.
She placed it around Kolfinna’s neck, the metal cool against her skin, and fastened it on the back.
“General Floki has already been here this whole time, but you were not introduced to him for … well, various reasons. The main one being you kept trying to escape. As for the other two generals, they are arriving from their expeditions.”
Expeditions meaning battles . How many territories had they seized?
An uneasiness settled in Kolfinna’s chest. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to meet Vidar’s underlings, especially if they were as brutal as he was.
But … A thought formed in the back of her mind.
If she could glean information out of them, maybe she would be able to piece together what their next moves were, or where the fae queen was located.
She doubted it would be easy. Rakel didn’t seem forthcoming, especially since she already disliked Kolfinna, but maybe the other three wouldn’t be so reserved with her. She could only hope.
Astrid smoothed down Kolfinna’s skirts and fluffed them out. “There. You look like a fae princess, now.”
Kolfinna stared down at the silk dress, her fingers brushing over the gold embroidery. She wasn’t used to wearing something so nice and she wondered for a moment if she really did look like royalty, or if she looked like someone pretending to be important.
“Come now, let’s go.”
Aslaug stared at them as they headed to the doorway, and it was only when Kolfinna reached the doorway that she noticed the woman smiling faintly at her.
She quickly averted her gaze as the door clicked shut behind her; a tiny part of her felt guilty for being able to leave, while the poor woman was left alone, but she shoved that feeling away. They were both prisoners here.
Astrid led Kolfinna down the spiraling staircase and through a connecting door into one of the walled sections of the city.
They kept walking until Kolfinna’s feet grew sore and numb, and it was only when they emerged into a bustling hallway with fae and elves swarming around that she realized they had reached the fortress.
All the soldiers seemed to be entering a dining hall, of sorts, but Astrid pulled her along to a different corridor, away from the rest of the army.
“All the towers, walls, and fortress connect with each other?” Kolfinna tried to memorize their every move. “Isn’t that inconvenient in case someone breaks in?”
“Why are you thinking about that?” Astrid asked sharply.
“I was just thinking out loud.”
“I don’t really know why the humans built this the way they did, but I assume it’s easier to move soldiers around when everything is connected, don’t you think?”