Page 108 of Blood of Ancients

“Youbelievethem?!”

Dokkalfar descended on me and Magnus. My focus switched from the siblings to the dark faces in front of us.

A shadowy figure appeared at the last second, shielding our prone bodies, daggers blurring. Kelvar the Whisperer suddenly stood over us and beat back the dark elf advance with quick parries and strikes.

Frida shouted for all to hear. “The Lepers canfinallyhave the magic we’ve been denied—the magic Vikingrune Academy and everyone else thinks we’re unworthy of!”

Arne’s voice was heartsick. “You’ve gonemad, Frida! Allying with Dokkalfar!”

Of course, I thought briskly, getting to my feet along with Magnus. Sven and Grim in their animal forms surrounded us, stamping their paws into the snow to hold their ground and protect us from any attacks.

Corym was still in his duel with the Dokkalfar leader, both of them tiring and yelling. Kelvar was off butchering the fucking mist.

I recalled Arne’s words when he’d first told me about Elayina, on the cusp of his betrayal to me. He had known I was curious about the Lepers Who Leapt. He had preyed on that, saying he was leading me to them so “likeminded people” could talk, since my magic was dormant back then.

“Well, she’s notexactlya Leper,”he’d said.“But she’s treated like one. The Lepers revere her. People go to her for help.”

Frida knew Lady Elayina the same way Arne did. The siblings had both been Lepers once. Frida “revered” the bog-seer . . . and now betrayed her like she betrayed me, leading the dark elves right to her.

I didn’t know what Frida was promisingthem. Why the Dokkalfar were in Midgard, or why they had slaughtered Huscarls and nearly killed Magnus to get here. Obviously Lady Elayina had something to do with it.Maybe they plan to use her as a hostage against the Ljosalfar?

Elayina had barricaded herself in her tree-cave and called out for help to “likeminded people”—in other words, elf-descendants like me and Corym.

It was starting to make sense.It always comes back to the Runesphere, doesn’t it? Stealing it from Alfheim, whether that’s the Lepers, the Dokkalfar, or Vikingruners.

I stared angrily at Frida in the mist, the blonde-haired, bright-eyed girl standing a few feet in front of Elayina’s cave barrier as she gesticulated and cried out to the heavens.

What kind of cursed deal did you strike with them, you silly, foolish woman?

My mates were beside me, with the exception of Corym, who still dueled their leader, and Arne, who stood in front of Frida, slack-jawed and baffled.

The dark elves were regrouping.

I noticed a few cuts on our side, but nothing we couldn’t withstand. We would be ready for a second wave, but so would the dark elves, no longer being flatfooted or caught unawares.

Frida reached her hand out, beaming like a madwoman. “Join me, brother, and we can—”

The shimmering barrier at the mouth of the cave behind herexploded, expanding outward in a hissing wave of energy.

The sheer power knocked everyone down, the crackling strike cascading out in an alluvial fan of raw magic.

Dark elves face-planted, thrown forward into the mud. My group lost our feet, bulldozed and landing on our backs.

I cleared my head, groaning, and looked down my body—

As a murky figureflewout of the cave entrance, bioluminescent fungi and bugs fluttering around her.

Lady Elayina landed in the mouth of the cave. She raised her arms, platinum hair floating in the sky behind her head. Tendrils of green vines and rotted tree branches snaked around her body, moving and slithering, as she cycled her arms in a clockwise motion.

The vines shot out—

Dark elves gasped, one of them rolled out of the way. Another was too slow, the vine circling around his ankles and gripping tight. He screamed—

And Elayina flicked her wrist. The vine squeezed, constricted,launchedthe elf into the side of the cave behind her, like Tarzan gone wrong, colliding from a vine swing.

The crash was deafening, the boulders and flying rocks sending a plume of dirt and grime onto the battlefield. The elf was embedded at least five feet into the rock face. Elayina’s sanctuary groaned as if it was about to cave in.

“Fuck,” Frida hissed, getting to her feet and dashing away. “Retreat! The bog-crone is in the theater!”

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