Page 5 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen (The Heartless and the Wicked #4)

“Let her go.” Kolfinna’s voice cracked, coming out weaker than she had intended it to, like a child whispering unreasonable demands. She tried to speak louder, more clearly. “ Let her go. ”

Her indecisiveness made the mana at her fingertips sputter. Was she going to fight? Or not? She curled her hands together; at the corner of her vision, Vidar hadn’t moved. Rakel grinned when Kolfinna didn’t do anything.

“Kolfinna, you’ll do as we say.” Rakel traced the column of Herja’s neck with a honed, shadowy talon. A trail of inky magic stained Herja’s skin, making it appear bruised.

“Don’t listen to them,” Herja said through gritted teeth.

Now that she had some of her mana and energy back, her lips curled into a scowl and her eyes grew flinty.

Her voice hardened as she spoke, even as the shadows binding her wrists darkened and flared, consuming her arms even more.

“I don’t know what they want from you, but don’t do it.

Even if they kill me, don’t let them win. ”

The pit in her stomach widened and she felt lightheaded. Rakel’s sharp red eyes seemed to glow menacingly, and Herja’s appeared like two flames ready to die off in embers. They both were determined— too determined, too sure of themselves—and it made her sick.

Free the evil queen or else Herja would die.

Save Herja and unseal the queen, and the kingdom would suffer the wrath of the fae.

It shouldn’t have been a difficult choice, and yet she couldn’t do it.

She wasn’t even that close to Herja. Just a few weeks ago, neither of them could stand the other.

But … But she couldn’t have her die. They had fought together, risked their lives together, saved each other during the battle a few days ago. That meant something.

Kolfinna couldn’t think. Her hands shook violently, her stomach heaved, and her mouth filled with salty water. She wanted to vomit. She wanted to disappear through the window. She wanted to be anywhere but there in that moment.

Rakel dug her nails deeper and Herja gasped, blood trickling down her neck and soaking into the collar of her slate-gray uniform.

Kolfinna took a step forward, her mana warming her hands and her instincts screaming at her to attack, but it was as if something was reining her back.

A ghostly, unnatural feeling that crawled down to the bottom of her toes and made her stomach curdle.

If she took another step forward, she had a sick, sick feeling that something terrible would happen.

“Please.” Kolfinna tried to push down her rising nausea.

Vidar still hadn’t moved, and that terrified her even more.

Herja squared her shoulders. There was something intense burning in her fierce expression. It reminded Kolfinna of a warrior ready to go to battle. “ Kolfinna .”

There was a warning in her tone. Kolfinna hated the hidden meaning behind it. Don’t give in , she seemed to say.

“Well, Kolfinna?” Rakel scraped her claws against Herja’s skin and flecks of blood rose over her pale, bruised, ink-stained neck.

“What do you choose? Save your friend here and do as we say, or …?” She yanked Herja’s head backward and wrapped a hand around her throat.

Her smile sharpened like her shadow-cloaked fingernails.

Like a whetted blade ready to sink into its victim.

“Kolfinna, the choice is yours. We can keep doing this, you know. Bringing humans here, killing them, torturing them, and discarding them until we find one who you care deeply enough for. Or until you grow tired of the weight of their lives weighing on your shoulders. Whichever comes first.”

Kolfinna swayed on her feet, her breaths coming out strained and shallow, as if her throat was closed up and she couldn’t breathe.

She should let them kill Herja.

It was more important to defeat the fae and elves without the wicked queen.

If all the black ranks joined together—Blár, Fenris, and Hilda—she was sure they could defeat the half-elf and his army, but awakening Queen Aesileif would only raise morale for the fae army and, if rumors of her strength were true, would make it much harder to win.

She should let Herja die.

But even as she parted her lips to speak, no words came out.

“Kolfinna.” There was an edge in Herja’s tone. A pleading look in her eyes that told her not to yield to them. She didn’t even know what was going on and she was ready to die right then and there. It made the pit in Kolfinna’s stomach open wider and fester with guilt, shame, and horror.

“ Kolfinna .” Rakel’s smile faded and she drilled her claws deeper into Herja’s flesh. Herja grimaced, pain flashing over her face. Blood dripped onto the rug in small droplets.

“I …”

A powerful gust of mana rose from behind Kolfinna.

In a split second, the entire room darkened with shadows as they raced from Vidar and swarmed Herja.

She didn’t have time to react as they hooked around Herja’s feet and arms and dangled her up to the ceiling.

A scream ripped from Herja’s mouth as the shadows burned her flesh.

They wrapped themselves around Herja’s entire body, crawling over her mouth and covering every part of her except her eyes, which were wide as saucers.

She struggled against the bindings, but they held her tightly.

Kolfinna stumbled forward, hands stretched out to do something, but one of the shadows whipped her outstretched fingers with such speed that she reeled back instantly. She barely felt the sting of the slap.

Vidar rose from his seat, finally, his wings flicking out in one fell swoop and engulfing the room like his shadows. He leapt over the table, his wings flapping once and sending a powerful gust of wind to ravage the room. Kolfinna tripped backward, mouth agape at the dense pressure in the air.

Fear penetrated every pore in her body and she trembled as Vidar took a step closer, his wings twitching like they itched to stretch out wider.

They were far too large and grand for such a small, constricted area.

He could probably unfurl them even wider, cause the walls of this place to crumble with his mere presence.

“That’s enough,” he said calmly. His voice held an edge like that of the sharpest sword. His lips curled back into a sneer. She could read the disappointment on his face, could feel it in the air with enough pressure to slice her in half. “I’ve seen enough of this display.”

Kolfinna fell to her knees when he approached her.

Her shoulders trembled and she couldn’t think of anything as those red, blood-like eyes hooked onto her.

It was suddenly hard to breathe, like he was draining the air from her lungs, whisking away the energy coursing through her body.

The corners of her vision filled with inky shadows, and she wasn’t sure if they came from him or from the overwhelming fear that anchored her in place.

“You will choose: right here, right now.” He waved an arm toward Herja and the ribbons of shadows immediately tightened.

Herja’s eyes nearly bugged out of her sockets and her screams became muffled.

“I will kill this human if you refuse to yield to me. I will break her every bone, rip the flesh from her shattered bones and bleed her dry. And through it all, you will watch as she screams and curses your name. Do you understand me, Kolfinna?”

The back of her eyes stung with tears. Her tongue was too heavy to speak, her head feeling so light that she was breathless.

Kolfinna inadvertently touched her wrist where Sijur had marked her. She had escaped from one monster only to end up with another, fiercer, more terrifying beast. One who would destroy her completely and everyone she loved.

Vidar kneeled down until his beastly gaze was level to hers. At that moment, she couldn’t see any similarities between herself and him. He looked monstrous. So very fae, elvish, and something else. Something from a nightmare.

“Will you free your mother”—his breath was warm, contrasting with the cold, deathly aura that filled the room—“or would you like for me to kill this woman?”

Kolfinna could feel her heart racing in her throat, could feel her chest squeezing tighter and tighter until she couldn’t breathe.

Her leg muscles cramped with the need to bolt out of the room.

She didn’t want to make a decision like that.

She didn’t want to be anywhere near this monster. She needed to run?—

From the corner of her eye, she caught Herja’s terrified expression. The outline of her body disappeared and reappeared as the wisps of shadows waved and curled like steam. Something awakened within Kolfinna at the sight of her fellow soldier, an instinct that she hadn’t known she had.

Kolfinna pounced at the half-elf, aiming for his face with such unexpected speed that her nails swiped his cheek right before he reeled back.

She sprang to her feet and kicked him with all her might; he lurched back, but Kolfinna shot toward Herja in that split second.

It was all she had—that half-second of his confusion.

It was all she needed to leap to Herja, her mana flaring at her hands as she reached forward to wrangle the shadows off her friend.

A beam of light nearly blinded her, and then something hard slammed into Kolfinna and she crashed onto the table, rolling over the top until she fell onto the other side. The chairs broke on impact as she collapsed onto them. Stars danced in her vision and she was suddenly staring at the ceiling.

Rakel .

She had forgotten about the elf woman.

The momentary adrenaline rush faded and Kolfinna tried pushing herself to her hands and knees, but her hands slipped over the slick blood dripping everywhere.

She shakily touched her shoulder and stared back at the blood coating her fingers.

Fragmented wood from the chairs pierced her skin and thighs, but the pain in her shoulder was worse, much worse.

“What a stupid move,” Rakel hissed, stalking toward her with a spear of light materializing in her hand.

Her whole face glowed yellow-white with the magic, making her harsh features seem harsher as she pointed it at Kolfinna’s face.

“You dare attack Commander Alfaer after all the mercy he’s shown you? You ungrateful fool .”

Kolfinna squinted against the light, her heart sinking. The scratch on Vidar’s face had already healed and disappeared, and Herja remained suspended by the shadows.

She had accomplished nothing, and she had blown the only chance she had. Or maybe she’d never stood a chance to begin with.

A bitter taste filled her mouth and her eyes stung.

The tip of the magic spear touched her chin and she scrambled backward as white-hot pain radiated from her flesh. Her hands glided over the broken pieces of wood surrounding her and she snatched up the sharpest one she could.

But before she could wave it in front of Rakel, the elf woman slapped her hand with the magicked spear and she dropped the makeshift stake. She cradled her injured hand to her chest, biting down on her lower lip to keep from screaming.

Rakel pointed the light spear at Kolfinna’s chest. “Do not think that we will not hurt you, Kolfinna.”

“Y-You need me,” Kolfinna whispered, gaze darting between Rakel and Vidar, who stood a few feet away from Herja.

A soft laugh escaped from Rakel. “You’re part elf, Kolfinna. Have you forgotten? Your broken bones will mend and your sliced flesh will repair itself. You will heal, and if your broken body is too fatigued to restore itself, then worry not, because we will gladly heal you until you listen .”

As if on cue, the stinging of her hand receded and she could already feel the now-familiar tug of her flesh being sewn together.

A chill rolled over her, freezing her down to her toes.

She was reminded once again of a windowless room, with Hilda’s whips and knives, of her screams going unnoticed.

Her body flinched back at the memory and she trembled anew.

Another fear overtook her in that moment, this time more visceral than before.

The shadows in the room grew restless, their hands distending and lashing around Herja’s body violently. Vidar held his own ink-stained hand toward Herja.

“Make your choice,” he said and his mana overwhelmed the space in the room like nothing else was allowed to exist but his power.

Kolfinna closed her eyes as if that was enough to make the shadows disappear, like it was enough to lessen the burden on her shoulders, or the guilt and helplessness spreading over like a wildfire. She felt too hot, too lightheaded, and too … nauseated.

She swallowed down the bile clawing up her throat. She didn’t have time to think too hard. She wanted so badly to grasp another splintered chunk of wood and toss it at Rakel or Vidar, to do something, but she knew it was useless. They had her cornered.

Finally, with her lips trembling and with the guilt of what she was about to do screaming from every pore in her body, she quickly whispered, “I’ll do as you say.”

She cringed as the words came out. The weight on her shoulders was too heavy for her to bear, and she couldn’t meet Herja’s eyes. Even as the shadows loosened their grip on her and she collapsed on the floor in a heap.

When Kolfinna raised her head, Vidar was peering down at her expressionlessly, but she could read him perfectly. He didn’t look surprised at all, but more like he’d expected this. He looked like a man who was used to getting what he wanted, one way or another. His words haunted her.

If you are anything like me, then you will do whatever is in your power to protect those whom you love, even if it means becoming wicked.