Page 131 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

Vaara’s brow twitched downward. Clearly he hadn’t expected this reaction. Neither had she. “I can change it, if it upsets you.”

“No. Don’t. Keep it.”

His hands were resting on the table between them. For a moment, Crow forgot herself, and she reached out to touch his hand.

It quickly jerked out of her reach. Again. As if he was afraid to touch her.

She froze. She’d done it again. Her face burned with embarrassment. She didn’t know what had changed to make him start avoiding her touch again, but it didn’t matter. Whatever they’d had between them was clearly over.

She started to get up to leave, but Vaara grabbed her arm.

“What?” she snapped.

He opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it again, indecisive.

Crow was about to pull away from him again when two figures coming toward them caught her eye. One was the blonde man from before, looking uncertain and lagging behind the other one. And the other one…

Crow’s eyes widened. She recognized him. And by the way he was glaring at her, she guessed he recognized her, too. It was one of the guards from Alexei’s prison. He wore no uniform, but she recognized his face.

“Vaara—” She took a step back, behind him.

Vaara turned just in time to be punched in the face by the guard.

Crow gasped as he staggered against the table. The glamour flickered for a fraction of a second, then slid back into place. No one else seemed to notice.

She thought they’d focus on apprehending Vaara—but, of course, they didn’t recognize him. The men were focused solely on her.

She tried to reach in and grab for a hand or neck, but then his arm was swinging toward her. Before she could react, his fist connected with her cheek, and the next thing she knew, she was on the ground.

Her head spun. She looked up and found that she’d fallen beside the table of mercenaries—or whatever they were. She was currently looking up into the face of the annoyed man seated there.

The guard loomed over her. “You’re brave, coming back here,” he said. “You should have stayed away. Bad things happen to bad people who come this way.”

And then a knife slammed into the side of his neck.

Crow’s jaw dropped. Vaara grimaced, jammed the knife in deeper, then ripped it out. A gush of blood drained down the guard’s side.

The guard clutched at his neck. The blonde behind him stared in horror. Around them, the room was rapidly growing quiet as people took notice.

The closest mercenary’s hand rested on his knee just above Crow’s head. She reached up and grabbed it.

Anger. Fight.

It didn’t take much of a push to motivate him. The mercenary leaped from his chair and attacked a man sitting at the next table. Crow ducked aside as the other mercenaries joined him. Very quickly, there was a fistfight involving no fewer than seven people in the middle of the room.

The blonde lunged for Vaara. Vaara twisted aside and, possibly through one of those maneuvers Novikke had talked about, suddenly had the man doubled over in front of him. The blonde continued to struggle until Vaara stuck the point of the bloody knife against his neck. As the blonde froze, Vaara looked down at Crow.

“Are you all right?” he asked. She could hardly hear him over the din of the brawl.

“Yes,” she said breathlessly.

He motioned for her to follow him, then dragged the blonde into the back hallway toward their rooms. The inn was filled with such a commotion that no one noticed them leaving.

Novikke and Aruna had appeared in front of their room by the time they got there, drawn out by the noise.

“What—” Novikke began.

“Open the door,” Vaara interrupted. Novikke stared at them in bewilderment, then opened the door to let them in.

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