Page 177 of Into the Isle

Bodies scattered the meadow. Blood was everywhere, painting the lush grass red.

Everything that had happened—everything I’d done—rushed back to me as the pain in my head started to subside and mellowed into a dull ache.

I wished it hadn’t ended that way with my little fox. Gods knew I didn’t want things to go like that. In time, if I survived my return to the academy, then maybe I could tell her why I’d done it.

I knew it didn’t matter now. She wouldn’t listen. She was gone, and so were the . . .

“Elves!” I shouted, sitting up.

Yes, I certainly had much bigger problems than my betrayal to Ravinica Linmyrr at the moment.

“Great,” Sven said from the riverbank. “He’s lost his fucking mind. That makes two madmen I’m with.” He sighed. “He’s useless. Even more than he already was.”

I shook my head furiously, grabbing Grim by the collar as he helped me up. I had no doubt I looked like a bedraggled lunatic in that moment.

“Believe me, Grim,” I begged. “It’s no jest.”

The bear shifter looked at me with concern on his face. He glanced back at Sven, who was scratching his forehead from secondhand embarrassment, evidently, and then Magnus, who never looked concerned about anything.

Grim faced me again, his expression serious. “What are you trying to tell us, Arne?” His face grew more threatening, his beard twitching. “Where the fuck is Ravinica?”

I swallowed hard. “Elves have returned to Midgard, Grim. They’ve taken Ravinica prisoner.”

Chapter 50

Corym

WE HOODED THE GIRL, much to her chagrin, and brought her through the Delf’avernin Forest—a wood I hadn’t traipsed through in quite some time.

This woman was a curiosity, certainly. She had strong features, a beautiful if not angry face, and ears that resembled ours. So did her hair, her eyes.

Yet all of it was a bit off. Tilted in the wrong direction—black marring the silver in her mane, ears half the length of ours, yellow eyes flecked with gold and red.

She clearly had the blood of our people inside her. Ljosalfar essence, however faint, was burrowed deep within this one.

Which was why we would not kill her immediately.

I could not explain the draw I felt toward this half-human woman. It was the first curiosity I’d found since my people had made our return to Midgard.

I knew many of my company wished we had killed her and been done with it. Some of them looked at me askance as we traveled through the woods, and I had no doubt they would challenge my leadership before too long. It was our way.

I likely should have obliged when it came to the human man this woman had been too weak to finish off herself. Logaithn was correct when he warned about them seeing our faces.

The young man would likely return to his military school and tell everyone about what he’d found.

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