Page 27 of Dark Elves of Ardani

Unsurprisingly, he looked like he didn’t believe her.

“Why did you not speak to the Paladins?” she asked. She had been wanting to ask since that day in the inn. “Even if you wanted to pretend not to understand them, you could have spoken through me.”

“Because I would rather die than do what a Paladin bids me.”

His tone had grown so venomous that she drew back and didn’t ask anything else.

When she had been warmed by the fire, she moved to the furs at the back of the cave, lying on the farthest edge of the skin to leave plenty of room for him. She eyed him warily when he approached her.

He paused, looking down at her before he spoke. “It will be warmer if we stay close together.”

Her heart skipped unpleasantly. “No.”

“You’ll freeze.”

“Do not touch me.”

She saw his jaw tense with anger. She held her breath, preparing to fight him.

But then he turned and went to the other corner of the skin. She waited until he settled in and went still before she relaxed. Evidently, he wasn’t worried about her running away.

She lay down, bundling her coat and cloak and the thin furs around her. She might indeed freeze, but she wasn’t stupid enough to give a man permission to snuggle up against her.

Chapter 10

Zara slept little, if at all. The cold kept her uncomfortably alert, and she shivered through the entire night. The half-elf did not have as much trouble, as far as she saw. The Varai as a whole seemed to feel the cold less than other people.

So she was still halfway awake to hear the distant voices that came the next morning. She glanced over at the half-elf, who was lying on his side, facing away from her. He didn’t move.

Slipping silently from her makeshift bedding, she crept across the cave, past the smoldering fire to the edge of the cliff they’d climbed the previous night. It was no wonder he hadn’t worried about her escaping. There was no way out except down, and the climb was too steep to manage on her own with her ankle injured.

She ducked behind an outcropping of rock and watched the ground below through the clouds of fog rolling by. Three male figures were walking past, all carrying weapons and wearing mismatched armor. One of them looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him. Their voices carried across the hillside, though she couldn’t make out everything they were saying.

She caught the phrase “night elves,” among their words, and then she realized why she recognized one of the men. Her eyes narrowed on him, her blood pumping faster.

He’d been there the day Kashava died. He was one of the bounty hunters who had attacked their group. One of the ones who had escaped afterward.

They were smiling now as they walked and chatted, which infuriated her beyond words. Perhaps they’d just finished brutally murdering someone else’s mother.

She felt a presence at her back, and she turned to find the half-elf crouched directly behind her, as if ready to grab her if she tried to shout to the men.

“Help me kill them,” she whispered.

Bright violet eyes studied her, squinting in the white daylight filtering through the clouds. He frowned a little, looking her over bemusedly.

“Righteous vengeance is sacred in the eyes of the Goddess,”she said in Varai.

He stared at her. His gaze flicked toward the men below, almost obscured by fog in the distance now. They were going to get away.

“Please,” Zara said, wrapping a hand around his wrist. He glanced down at her hand on him, one eyebrow arching slightly. His skin was warm and smooth. She felt the outlines of muscles and tendons twitch beneath her fingers as he moved.

“I have only my sword,” he said, resting a hand on the pommel. “No ranged weapons. It is daytime. There are three of them. We are both injured.” Four reasons they would fail. “This is not the time for vengeance.”

She gritted her teeth against a wave of anger and grief, though she knew he was right. She shoved the emotions down deep until they were only a dull roaring in the back of her mind.

“What did they do to you?” he asked.

“Will you believe me if I tell you?” Zara said, watching the men disappear around a corner and drop out of sight.

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