Page 69 of The Broken Elf King
“That’s enough!” I shouted.
Raife got up quickly, brushing the blow off, and then stood facing Lucien without even lifting his arms.
“Fight back, you bastard!” Lucien raised his fist and an icicle formed inside his palm.
My sharp intake of breath echoed throughout the room. I went to move forward to stop him, but when I looked down my feet were frozen to the spot, literally. He’d immobilized me.
Fear tightened in my gut as I watched the scene unfold before me.
“I’m sorry,” Raife said in the most earnest way possible. “I’m sorry, Lucien. You were like a brother to me, and I’m… so sorry.”
The fae king’s chest heaved as he held the icicle to Raife’s throat. Raife tipped his chin high, as if asking him to do it. I yanked my foot from my frozen shoe and prepared to jump on the winter king’s back or something crazy to get him to stop.
But the fae dropped his hand and the icicle crashed to the ground. “Go away, and don’t come back.” He sounded resigned.
I nearly melted in relief that he wasn’t going to kill Raife. Slipping my foot back into my shoe, I looked down at the ice blocks; they were now powdered snow. If I weren’t so terrified I might actually process how cool that was.
Raife looked at me and crossed the room. Lucien stayed where he was, keeping his back to us.
Raife slipped his hand into mine and then stared at Lucien’s back. “Drae has agreed to march on the Nightfall queen. We’re going to stop her reign of terror, and I’d really like if you’d joined us.”
Lucien laughed, a cold and biting sound. “The dragon king has agreed to take on the Nightfall queen with you?”
“Yes,” Raife growled.
Lucien spun, his eyes flashing silver for a wild moment. “I’ll believe that when I hear it from Drae’s mouth. Now get the Hades off my land!” A flurry of snow came out of nowhere and flew at us. Raife scooped me up as if I were made of air and tucked me into his chest, carrying me out of the castle at a brisk walk.
The snow danced around us like a wind tunnel until we reached our horse, then it dropped to the ground.
I looked up at Raife for the first time, trying to conceal my terror. “That went awful,” I said as he let me down, my body sliding slowly down his.
Raife’s lip was split and bleeding; his cheek was swollen and red. But he was… grinning, and I couldn’t for the life of me understand what would make him smile.
“I just need to bring Drae back and Lucien will believe him. You heard him.”
I frowned. “That doesn’t mean he will fight with you. Sending his people to war is a big deal, Raife.”
Raife nodded. “He could have killed me and he didn’t. That means somewhere in there, he’s still my old dear friend. And an old dear friend will help me avenge my family.”
My heart pinched at his words as he helped me mount the horse. “You really won’t stop until you take out Zaphira, will you?”
He swung his leg over the horse and stared back at me with a fierceness I wasn’t prepared for.
“Since the day my family died, writhing on the floor and foaming at the mouth, I’ve been planning this war. I will not stop until I get what I want.”
Chills broke out on my arms. The elves might be healers and therefore seen as “weak” among other races, but what elves lacked in brute force, they made up for in archery marksmanship and cunning. Raife had planned this war for nearly ten years. I knew he would allow nothing to get in his way.
Not even me.
It all made sense now, the way he pushed me away when I got too close. I was sure he was afraid to care for someone again and lose them like his family, but I also thought he didn’t want anything to distract him from the justice he sought for them. From his war. Hades, after that bitch poisoned me in an effort to get to him, I couldn’t wait to see her head on a spike. But also for his family, for every magical creature she’d killed merely for being born with magic. A blessed gift from the Maker.
She was sickening, evil, and I just didn’t talk about it much because it was engrained in me not to. Growing up in Nightfall meant we didn’t utter a bad word about Queen Zaphira for fear of being hanged for treason. Maybe Raife didn’t know how much I supported him and this war, this quest for revenge. Maybe he needed to.
“Raife, I just want you to know that whatever part, big or small, that I can play in helping you get justice for your family, I will.”
His eyes softened, and I knew that my commitment meant a lot.
“Zaphira is absolute evil,” I told him. “She must be stopped. I just don’t say that out loud much because I’m used to not being able to talk bad about her for fear of retribution.”
