Page 128 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

“Like attracts like. None of them lasted very long, though.”

Crow took a long drink to fill the silence that followed. She didn’t know how she felt about any of what he’d just told her.

“He has feelings for you,” Aruna said quietly.

She knew that already. She just didn’t understand what kind of feelings they were, exactly. “He told you that?”

“No. But what he did for you—going after you yesterday—he wouldn’t have done something like that for anyone else.”

He sounded so certain of himself that Crow couldn’t question him.

“Thank you for coming yesterday,” she said. “I owe you all my life. Regardless of your reasons, I’m grateful you were there.”

“Noted. And I forgive you for calling me an asshole.”

“You shouldn’t eavesdrop if you don’t want to hear things you don’t like.”

“I didn’t know listening to someone at your own table could be considered eavesdropping.”

“You learn something new every day.” She looked up at the door, half expecting Vaara to walk through it again just to argue with her. He was nowhere to be seen. She held back a sigh. “I’ll be back,” she muttered, and went outside to find him.

She found him in the alley up the stairs. He was leaning against a wall in a patch of waning sun, his hood up, Crow’s scarf pulled up over his nose.

“I thought you didn’t like the sun,” she said.

He glanced pointedly at the snow that had gathered on the cold street. “It has its uses.”

He was mostly covered up, but in broad daylight, it wasn’t difficult to see that there was something strange about him. It made her nervous that he was out here alone.

“I almost expected to find you’d been taken again,” she said. She stopped in front of him, crossing her arms. “I suppose that would be so unlikely as to be almost impossible. It couldn’t happen three times in a row. Twice, maybe. But three? That would just be ridiculous.”

“Crow…”

“You don’t have to be my friend,” she said. “We never even have to see each other again after this, if you don’t want to. But you have no right to stop me from seeing this through.”

She took a step closer, near enough that she could feel the heat from his body and smell the lavender-scented soap he’d used earlier that day. She reached up to carefully pull the scarf down beneath his chin. Her fingers grazed his skin, revealing vague hints of his emotions in spurts too short to decipher.

She heard him quietly suck in a breath. He caught her wrist, holding her away from him. He looked embarrassed. Like he didn’t know how to let her down easy.

She took a step back, mortified. She’d let herself get too comfortable. She was Ashara. She couldn’t just freely touch someone any time she wished. Just because they’d shared a few intimate moments, it didn’t mean he belonged to her now. They weren’t together.

“Crow…” he began again.

“We can leave Valtos as soon as you’re ready,” she interrupted. “I know how to get to the prison. I’ll show you the way.” She turned and retreated down the stairs before he could reply.

Chapter 36

Before an hour had passed, they were out of Valtos and on the road toward the prison.

Vaara seemed annoyed when Novikke appeared alongside Aruna and followed them onto the road, but he chose to ignore her rather than protest. It seemed that where one of them went, the other followed.

They walked mostly in silence. Crow was avoiding Vaara, and he seemed to be avoiding her. Aruna had taken off his translating enchantment to conserve its magic, so he and Novikke didn’t talk.

Their destination was an inn on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere between Valtos and Alexei’s prison, which they arrived at as the sun was setting.

There were only two rooms available, to Crow’s dismay. She wondered whether Novikke and Aruna would take pity on her and let her share their room.

The rooms were around the back of the inn, near a rear door, and they smuggled Vaara and Aruna inside without incident. The place smelled of old cloth and there was dust and cobwebs in the corners of the room, but it was better than facing the inhumane cold outside.

---