Page 22 of I Destroyed the Elf Prince's Harem

I jumped away from Nylian and nearly stumbled over a rock in my haste. “No! Absolutely not!” That was not the impression I wanted him to get. Getting in between the hero and one of his true loves was a fucking death wish I did not have. I crossed over to Nylian and lowered my voice. “She’s not my type, I swear. Besides, I’m pretty sure she’d rather kill me and search my clothes for valuables. If she’s interested in anyone, I’m sure it’s you.”

The elf stared at me until I could feel heat creeping up to the tips of my ears. I couldn’t even guess what he was thinking, but I suspected it wasn’t anything good. He was going to ditch both me and the Engleford siblings the first chance he got, but we all needed to stick together. Adeline was going to be his first—well, first now instead of like the eighth—consort. They were going to fall in love. Plus, he needed me to help him uncover the truth about his brother’s killer. I had to see this through, since I’d created this mess.

“Fine,” Nylian ground out between clenched teeth. He turned on the balls of his feet and returned to the campfire. I barely held in a celebratory dance and made do with punching the sky in my mind as I hurried after him.

“So, will you come with us?” I asked Adeline the moment I sat on the fallen log.

“How much are you paying us to protect Your Highnesses?” she inquired with an added sneer at the end.

“Five hundred for the rescue and the escort to Riverhold,” Nylian answered before I could.

A sharp bark of laughter broke from Adeline’s throat, and she shook her head at him. “Low balling, asshole. Not a fucking chance we’re doing it for less than eight.”

“Six.”

I rolled my eyes and jumped to my feet, leaving Nylian and Adeline to argue over money. What did I care? She was going to fall in love with him, and the money was going to be moot in the end. I sat next to Jasper with a grin. “Last night, what was that giant flash of white light? How did you take out those ogres?”

The young man flushed and dropped his eyes to the grimoire in his lap. “Oh. That. The spell I’d been trying to cast didn’t work at all. I thought I could turn them to stone for a few hours. That would give us plenty of time to escape, and it was likely they’d give up on us all together out of fear.”

“Makes sense. What actually happened?”

Jasper’s shoulders rose and his head lowered so that he became even smaller. “I shrank them.”

“Really? By how much?”

“A lot. They were about the size of large squirrels when the light faded.”

I fell off the log laughing, my brain filled with the image of those snarly, angry ogres running about the forest with their cudgels in the air as they chased after rabbits and battled groundhogs. Served them right after they’d considered eating us.

“Lockhart!”

I choked on the last of my chuckles and stared up at the elf, who was glaring at me. Why the hell was he so grumpy? Was he not a morning person, too?

“Are you done?” Nylian groused.

“I don’t know. Are you and Adeline done with negotiations?” I shot at him.

“We’re done. We’ve settled on seven hundred.”

“Excellent.” I hopped to my feet and dusted off the seat of my pants, for what little it was worth. The way things were looking, it was going to be a while before I saw anything like a hot bath and a clean change of clothes. “Let’s get on the road.” I pointed in the direction I thought was northeast, trying to appear confident and powerful.

Nylian sighed as he wrapped his fingers around my wrist and adjusted my point by forty-five degrees to my left. “It’s a good thing you’re not leading this group.”

“Yep. I have no sense of direction,” I admitted freely. Back home, I’d gotten lost in my local mall more than once. God help me in those big box stores.

“Why am I bringing you along at all?”

I smiled at the elf and patted him on the shoulder. “Remember, I’m the distraction. I’m the one always ready to get you out of trouble.” I also hoped I wasn’t the one getting him into trouble.

Chapter 8

Time for Me to Strangle Nylian

Hiking through the woods to something that resembled a road sucked.

Had I complained about riding a horse recently?

I took it all back. Every single derogatory word. Horses were great. They were beautiful, magnificent beasts that generously carried me from one place to the next at a brisk speed.

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