Page 28 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody (Elven Fantasy Romance #3)

Chaper 27 Svenn

M y heart leaps at the sound of light footsteps. All joy vanishes when I recognize the approaching elf. I have no energy to entertain Red today.

“Fuck off…” I grumble.

The knight enters my detainment cell despite my hostility. He dips his head, his gaze sweeping over the arrays of weapons and shrapnel stuck to my body. “I think you will need help in removing those.”

I don’t fail to catch the hint of pity in his eyes.

“I don’t need your sympathy, elf.” My lips pull back in a silent snarl, revealing my canines—a glimpse of my features in his shining armor stops me short.

I realize how terrifying I must have looked to her earlier.

A fucking monster…

Just like that, a crushing agony pelts through me. I didn’t want her to see that part of me.

Not like that.

“You look like a porcupine,” the knight muses, kneeling next to me.

This red-hooded rabbit truly has no fear of the wolf. He sets out a leather-skin case on the floor, one that is usually used to store paintbrushes, except this guy has an array of knives, pliers, and scissors inside.

I set myself still as Red uses his tools to remove bits of broken weapons from my wounds. My body would have purged them eventually in the coming weeks or months, some may even get dissolve inside of my tissues. Having them withdrawn from me, however, will hasten the healing significantly.

I just hate owing Red anything.

“I think the javelin’s pike went straight through the bone,” he remarks, taking his time to remove the broken piece of a wooden lance from my right knee. “This one is going to hurt like hell. Would you like me to call you a healer or do you want me to proceed?”

I let out a slow breath and nod.

“Here goes,” he says in warning. I barely grimace when he finally takes out the damn thing with his scalpels. I can be flayed from head to toe right now and still feel no pain, not when I’ve learned a new definition of the word today.

Red is unusually quiet today, his eyes trained on the task at hand. I find his silence unnerving.

“Why are you helping me?” I ask him after a while.

He pauses his ministrations momentarily. “We are alike you and I.”

I doubt it…

A strange emotion flares in his eyes when he speaks again. “The entire House Clayborne was set up to be crushed by the Wiolants. My family and I should have been dead by the Aeonians’ wicked scheme. But the Queen saw something in me and made me her trusted knight. I think she sees something in you too.”

A fucking monster. That’s what I am.

I swallow hard.

“I’m not a good person,” he continues, a fierce flame flickering in his eyes. “I don’t go around carrying these tools to heal like the Hlaryan elves. I use this for my… ‘questioning sessions.’ This is the first time I’m helping someone with it. It’s all because of her.”

His newfound strive to be good sounds eerily familiar. Nel tends to have this kind of effect on people. I think I understand what he means, though I don’t say it.

“I can’t really explain why,” he says thoughtfully. “All I know is I like myself better after meeting Rhianelle. It helps that I like her too.”

Red should have really stopped talking seconds ago. This guy can’t even stand still without finding a way to piss me off.

He grins with a crinkle of mischief in his eyes. “That rumble in your throat tells me that you like her, too.”

I don’t just like her. She’s my everything.

“Snuck right past your defenses, did she?” he asks, his mouth kicking up at the corners with a smile. “I told you in the beginning, remember? The queen will have your heart.”

Red’s gaze lowers to where Rhianelle had stabbed me. “One way or the other,” he adds with a shrug.

I don’t laugh at his unfunny jest. But the thought of my thieving fawn brings me warmth.

“Rhia—” I bite my tongue from uttering her name. Something so sacred shouldn’t grace the mouth of something as infernal as me. “Where is she?”

“She was inspecting the west wing dungeon, checking on the dwarven prisoners when I left her,” he replies tightly.

I rein in the insurmountable urge to rush to her.

After what I’ve seen today, I know Rhianelle can take care of herself from any danger. But I picture her traveling through the dark tunnels of the underground prison, seeing the horrors of the torture chambers, imagining the worse that could happen to her friend. I want to be by her side to hold her hand through that. I could have, had I not been so weak to fall victim to a cursed dagger.

The dread must have been obvious on my face because Red suddenly says, “Hey, Aelfric is with her. She’ll be all right.”

And speak of the devil…

Eyepatch appears in his silver armor that has somehow remained sparkling clean compared to Red’s. He studies the aftermath of my onslaught from days ago. I had buried four orcs deep in the northern wall.

“The Queen did not authorize this butchery,” he mutters briefly.

Great.

I’m spoiling for a fight and Eyepatch is the perfect opponent.

“Why are you here?” I hiss in a breath.

His glacial eyes harden as they gaze into mine. “Queen’s order.”

All the venomous things I want to spit to Eyepatch suddenly fail to articulate on my tongue. I swallow the hot coal burning in my parched throat.

The elven knight is here to deliver my judgement.

I’ll accept any punishment willingly. They can execute me however many times they want. But if they’ve chosen to banish me…

My heart tears itself to fucking pieces. I can’t bear the thought.

Don’t take her away from me.

“Some of these are friendly,” Red muses while tossing an arrow aside. He doesn’t read the darkening atmosphere as Eyepatch approaches.

The guy enters the prison cell like the reaper himself. His sharp eyes flick to the worse of my injuries on the right collarbone, then down to my chest where Rhianelle had planted her dagger. He continues his silent scrutiny for a long moment before grabbing the axe buried in my chest with both hands. His face yields nothing as he places his boot on my shoulder to extract the weapon from my sternum. Eyepatch doesn’t carry the same finesse as Garrett as he attempts to pull it free. I swear he’s tearing a new wound open.

“That prayer she gave you before battle… Do you know what it means?” Eyepatch asks.

I meet the bastard’s ice cold glare with my own.

“It says, ‘Let the arrows find me instead of him. Let the blades cut through me instead of him. Let the fire burn me instead of him. Let death take me instead of him,’” he says, splitting my heart right down the middle. “It’s what an elf would pray whenever their spouse is about to undergo a dangerous task.”

My insides coil into suffocating knots at his words.

That’s the worst blow any creature had given me on the battlefield today. Eyepatch knows how to hit me where it hurts the most. He might as well just bury that axe in my chest again and end me from my misery.

Damn him.

Damn me for hurting her.

The two are silent again as they work on removing the weapons and metals on my body.

I wait for Eyepatch to finally twist the knife with the final verdict. To be separated from her is unthinkable. But if that is what she desires…

The knight stares down at me and his jaw flexes. “Rhianelle will be waiting for you at the camp.”

“What?” I exhale, the disbelief crawling in my chest.

“You heard me,” Eyepatch mutters under his breath, his tone low and sharp. “Go to the healers if your eardrums are damaged.”

He removes his gaze from me and throws a satchel at my side. I briefly look at the tunic, breeches and cloak inside.

She’ll be waiting for me?

His words render me utterly speechless.

“That’s the last of it,” Red says, fishing out the final shards of glass from my forearm with a forceps. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

I don’t deserve an ounce of kindness from Rhianelle. I let her down. In fact, I have been an asshole to her from the first day she became the vessel for the curse. “Rhianelle is afraid of me.”

“Far be it from me to guess the queen’s feelings. But would she have asked Aelf to set you free if she is?” His eyebrows nudge together when I remain silent. “Think about this then, would Aelfric have let you anywhere near her if he thinks you’re a danger to the queen?”

Red stretches and packs his death instruments.

“Would I have let Rhianelle be with you if I thought she didn’t want you?” he asks again when I still haven’t moved an inch. “I saw the way you two looked at each other.”

I know the way I look at her. Like she is the goddess I worship, my one and only, the goddamn sun itself. But what does Red mean by the way Rhianelle looked at me? I almost ask him, but the guy is already breezing through the door.

“Go to her,” the knight says in parting.

“Garrett,” I call to him.

He pauses, glancing over a shoulder.

“What do I do? What do I even say to her?” I can’t believe I’m asking fucking Red for his opinion.

The guy merely smiles and shrugs. “Crawl to her. Beg the hell for her forgiveness. Whatever it takes to have her back.”

I will gladly get on my goddamn knees if it means her forgiveness. I just don’t think it would be enough.

The prison is quiet for a moment after Red leaves. I take a deep breath, then drag myself up.

Yes, whatever it takes.

I am extremely unworthy of her. But if Rhianelle gives me a second chance, I’ll do everything I can to deserve her.