Page 8 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen (The Heartless and the Wicked #4)

FOUR – KOLFINNA

She could hear a bird’s feathers rustling, could hear someone sighing, could hear the zing of someone sharpening their sword against a whetstone. It was too much— too overstimulating and too overwhelming.

She covered her ears with her hands and flinched as they throbbed. Her stomach twisted and she resisted the urge to vomit.

“Aesileif had fae glamour put on you to hide your true ears. I simply removed it.” Vidar’s voice was tight. Uncomfortable. She wasn’t sure why. “Rakel, take her away.”

“But—But why ?” She didn’t know what possessed her, but she stumbled toward him as if to grab him and shake him. She stopped short when he turned to her sharply. There wasn’t an ounce of care in his stiff stance. If anything, he looked ready to cut her down.

“Why? You ask such useless questions.” There was a harshness in his voice that she was beginning to grow accustomed to. “You are fae, Kolfinna. This is how the fae look; this is how you’re supposed to be.”

A tear rolled down her cheek and he stiffened once more.

“ I hate you ,” she whispered, trembling all over. Maybe in rage, maybe in grief at what she had lost, or maybe in mourning, because everything she had thought she knew about herself had been a lie.

Vidar stood very still, the wind blowing against his tall frame. He turned away from her abruptly, seeming to be done with this conversation. “Rakel, take her away.”

Rakel reached forward to grab Kolfinna’s wrist again, but she pulled away before she could.

“I can walk by myself,” she snapped, her voice coming out surprisingly level and heated. She sniffled and wiped her face quickly. She hated them all, but she especially hated Vidar. She climbed up to her feet shakily. “I don’t need you dragging me everywhere.”

The elf woman frowned, opened her mouth to argue, but then seemed to think better of it. “Fine. Come this way.” She waved her forward and they began walking toward the group of drekis they had passed earlier.

Kolfinna could finally breathe now that she wasn’t so close to Vidar. She rubbed her chilled arms slowly, trying to bring circulation back to them—she had to do something to keep herself grounded, because hearing the voices of people talking from dozens of feet away was jarring enough.

“So elves aren’t born with wings?” she asked as they neared the wingless soldiers who, upon closer inspection, all had white hair. Some wore their helmets, but some had them tucked under their arms. She could imagine it was rather stuffy wearing one.

“No,” Rakel said shortly.

“But Vidar?—”

“Is half -elf, remember?”

“Right …” She told herself needed to fish for more answers if she wanted to know more about the enemy, but in reality, she truly wanted to know more about her people. “But why was he so surprised that my wings were cut off? I’m sure he noticed when we first met that I don’t have any.”

Rakel shot her a strange look over her shoulder. “Fae can dematerialize their wings.”

“Huh?” Kolfinna’s steps slowed as those words registered to her. Her back tingled with that new piece of information. If that was true, then why did the fae cut their children’s wings off?

“They probably forgot how to do that over the centuries,” Rakel murmured, as if reading her mind.

She slowed in her steps, her leather boots crunching over pebbles, singed grass, and crumbling stone.

When she looked back at Kolfinna, she wore an almost rueful expression.

“It’s a shame they chopped your wings off.

You used to have the most magnificent pair. ”

She whirled around and began her trek toward the drekis, leaving Kolfinna to scramble after her. Had Rakel … known Kolfinna as a child? She must have been around two years old before she was sealed away in the cave—if she truly was the heir, an idea she was starting to realize was truer than not.

“Did you—” Kolfinna’s question was drowned away by the roar of the nearest dreki, making her nearly jump out of her skin.

Her hands went straight to her ears and she winced at the sore, tender skin.

Either her new ears were highly sensitive to any sound, or that beast was really, really loud. It was likely the latter.

An elf soldier tossed a chunk of meat close to the giant beast’s head and it shot forward, sharp teeth snapping over the food, before it roared again, demanding more.

Kolfinna watched in fascination as soldiers hauled over barrels full of dead rabbits, goats, and chickens.

Blood seeped out from the cracks of the barrels, leaving wet trails along the grass.

“We usually feed the drekis before we go on long journeys.” Rakel stopped a dozen feet away from the slew of beasts and the elf warriors tending to them.

She placed a hand on her hip and scanned her surroundings.

“It keeps them happier and avoids an unexpected detour to hunt. Trust me, the last thing you want is a hungry dreki.”

A long journey. Where, exactly was that? Were they going to find the fae queen now?

“Where are we going?”

“Trying to get information out of me?” Rakel shot her a wry grin. “We’ll be headed toward one of the territories we’ve captured, and then after that we’ll launch an attack on the capital.”

She had known they wanted to take over the kingdom, but hearing it out loud made her blood run cold.

If they thought they could up and drop into the capital without repercussion, they were wrong.

Fenris was in charge there, and she doubted he’d let them do as they pleased.

But still, thinking about Vidar invading the capital sent a chill down her spine.

Kolfinna shifted on her feet and stared at the drekis munching their food, feathers and ribbons of meat stuck between their razored teeth.

It was strange to think that these creatures were somehow …

domesticated by the fae and elves. Sure, they didn’t act like horses, dogs, and livestock, but the arrogant creatures seemed to know their place here.

She was positive humans would never have been able to do such a thing.

She wondered, for a moment, if the fae queen had ridden just a beast, or if she preferred to fly with her own wings.

She couldn’t imagine the wicked queen doing such a thing; all she had read about her and learned of her was that she was vile, she drank the blood of human children, and she kept a plethora of slaves in her palace at all times.

She hardly seemed like the type to ride a dreki.

“Where is the fae queen sealed away?” Kolfinna asked.

Rakel turned to her sharply, bright eyes narrowed to slits. “None of your concern, Princess.”

“But if I’m supposed to free her …” Her throat closed up at the thought of it; she prayed she’d escape their clutches before she could do such a thing. “Shouldn’t I know where she is?”

“Do you think I don’t know what you’re doing?

” Rakel crossed her lean arms over her chest. “I’m not going to tell you vital information so that you can use it against us.

I highly doubt you’d be able to leave, but considering you are his daughter, I wouldn’t be surprised if you found a way.

” She spoke the last part with a hint of respect, but Kolfinna doubted it had anything to do with her, and was mostly because of Vidar.

Silence filled the space between them. Kolfinna reluctantly touched the edge of her sharpened ears. They stung with the small contact. Now she looked even more like him, she thought with a shiver.

“You … like him, don’t you?”

“Excuse me?” Rakel’s head whipped to the side, her white braids following the quick movement, as she pinned Kolfinna with an incredulous look.

“Vidar, I mean. You seem to love him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. He’s married.”

Kolfinna searched the elf woman’s face for any vulnerability, for something that she could use against her, but there were only harsh lines on her face and an even harsher glint in her eyes. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

Her jaw stiffened. “I respect him, Kolfinna, and you would be wise to do the same.”

“But—”

“I’m married.” She parted her lips to speak, but a flash of something vulnerable passed over her features. She clamped her trembling mouth together. “Stop talking about this nonsense. Stay silent and wait here.”

Rakel stomped off toward one of the drekis and began speaking to the elves feeding it.

Kolfinna watched her as she busied herself with impatiently chucking the entire barrel into a dreki’s mouth using her shadow magic.

Kolfinna glanced over at the rest of the soldiers milling about doing their own thing.

Nobody was paying attention to her right now.

She didn’t want the opportunity to slip.

Without wasting another breath, she slowly backed away, keeping an eye on Rakel and the other fae soldiers close by.

Another step, and then another, and then she spun around and speed-walked toward the fortress.

The last place they would expect her to run to was the building.

She needed to find where they were keeping Herja and escape this place immediately.

The doors to the fortress were wide open and soldiers were going in and out carrying weapons or tools for travel.

She had expected for all the soldiers to swarm her immediately, but they seemed too focused on their own tasks on hand.

Some of them glanced at her, but were either distracted by something else, or didn’t think too much about her.

Maybe she didn’t look too much like the enemy anymore now that she was dressed in pretty clothes as opposed to her torn and bloodied military uniform.