Page 15 of Blood of Ancients

I was sure Frida had managed to twist her actions with that cunning tongue our family line shared, to make it seem like she had acted in the Lepers’ best interest by trying to hand Corym E’tar over to Vikingrune Academy.

In truth, it had been a misaligned sense of self-preservation for her and the Lepers Who Leapt that caused her to act so frivolously and dangerously.

If it hadn’t been for Magnus Feldraug making sacrifices of his own, allowing the academy to siphon his blood to test like a damn lab rat, I had no doubt Ravinica and Corym would still be in a jail cell to this day.

Hel, Corym essentially was. Even after Ravinica made an evengreatersacrifice—opening the portal to the elven realm of Alfheim—in order to save her pointy-eared lover, the academy was threatened by having a full-blooded, full-hated elf among our numbers.

We didn’t understand the ramifications or level of disarray opening the portal would cause. It was too early to tell, but I had a feeling nothing good would come of it.

The portal to Alfheim had been closed, warded off by elves, for centuries. It had been a one-way warding, so humans could not go to Alfheim. Yet elves didn’t come here, either. Tradebetween elves and humans stopped during those centuries. Deepening hatred between our races festered.

Ravinica had opened that Pandora’s Box. All to save one man. Her actions frightened me at times, though her heart was in the right place. My little fox didn’t want to sacrificeanyone—much less a mate she loved.

Yet I feared she had inadvertently sacrificed the many for the sake of the few, jeopardizing countless lives in the not-too-distant future. Time would tell.

Trying to bring down my sister had been a kneejerk reaction I was forced to follow through because of my own stubbornness and anger. I wanted to bring her down a peg, to show her that in order to affect real change with the Lepers, she couldn’t endanger the ones who were trying to help her.

The ones like Ravinica who, naively, saw a utopian future for the elves and humans no one else saw.

If I was stubborn, the woman I adored was downright obstinate.It was one of the qualities I loved about her—her overweight sense of justice and morality. Her need to do the right thing, even after all the wrongs thrust on her over her short life.

Ravinica thought she could undo centuries of friction and conflict between the elves and humans. Based on what? A cryptic prophecy she hadn’t fully explained to me yet? Her studies in history, and the fact she carried the blood of both elves and humans inside her? Her scorching sex with one of their ilk? I’d had the great fortune to be involved in that scorching sex behind the waterfall, and it didn’t matter how delectable Corym’s cock was or how honorable a man he was.

I worried that, if Ravinica everdidmake it into Alfheim to meet the rest of the Ljosalfar, they would eat her alive.

At least she would have me, Grim, Magnus, Sven, and Corym to aid her. The men who refused to let her fail.

We were six against the world.

With a great sigh, I put my hands on my hips and worried my bottom lip with my teeth.

Ravinica was always on my mind. I’d groveled and made amends for my ineptitudes and betrayals, and she’d shown graciousness to forgive me. As much as she could, anyway.

Ever since her forgiveness three weeks ago, her mercy, I vowed to do everything in my power to keep her happy and content with me. If I had to be her swift-tongued golden retriever, so be it. If she wanted to bully me and tie me up, step on me, badmouth me, even better. I would thank her for the treatment.

Whatever Ravinica wanted of me, I would do. Because she gave me purpose, and a reason to be at this gods-forsaken academy, on this gods-forsaken island.

I’d also heard through the grapevine that her birthday was coming up. Which meant I had even more reason to give her the world.

An hour after my pity-party ended in my cramped dwelling, I found myself wandering into the high-ceilinged cavern directly beneath Eir Wing, where the hospital had relocated during the blizzard season.

Like many of the other subterranean tunnels and caves, the area beneath a building acted as that building’s purpose during winter. The Hersirs didn’t want to create too much confusion, especially for students who had just started to get a handle where everything was locatedaboveground.

Beneath Nottdeen Quarter was where the female students housed in their tiny individual dwellings. Same went for Nottdan Quarter for the men, west. Gharvold Hall Under was where the physical combat and training sessions were held. The expansivecavern under Tyr Meadow acted as a training ground. The same went for Eir Wing and the hospital.

I was not here to see any of the wounded.

The nurses and white-robed acolytes—set apart from the black-robed library acolytes of Mimir Tomes—had done well with what they’d been given. The crude cavern walls were adorned with tapestries and plaster to create a buffer between the sequestered, filtrated air of the hospital and the outside.

I walked through hallways, feeling like I was on the surface of campus more than anywhere else in the underground city, my head swiveling left and right.

I found her a few minutes later, stepping away from a dwelling-room and taking off gloves. Her bobcut bangs, sliced down the middle, black and white on opposite sides, were the first thing I noticed stepping into the white-walled passage. Poking her glasses up her nose, she saw me approaching and winced.

Dagny Largul had always been an awkward one, more skilled with books and learning than with people. Decidedly the opposite of me.

I smiled charmingly at her, which only made her wince grow. I knew she didn’t think the world of me, after I’d betrayed Ravinica months ago when she first came to Vikingrune. I hoped with time, just like Vini had, Dagny would forgive me and grow fonder of me.

“Hello, Dagny,” I said, still smiling.

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