Page 107 of A Serenade To The Elf Queen
The tears clinging to her eyelids completely stun me. She’s crying her eyes out.
“Let me help you,” she says, her choked breaths filling the air.
Is she fucking with me?
Surely, the girl knows I have accelerated healing. The Rhunhraefn must have revealed every morsel of information it has on me. How best to use me, to torture me. If it’s a trick, then it’s working because that look on her face is getting to me.
“Svenn, please.” Her eyebrows scrunch with concern, her tiny frame shaking. “I can help you pull them out.”
A long breath leaves me. I abide by her request and stop by a giant elm tree. My body tenses, anticipating her to run as soon as I set her on the ground. But Rhianelle immediately rushes to tend to the wounds on my back. I feel her small, trembling hands on my skin, trying to heal me.
“I’ll try to be gentle, but this will still hurt,” she warns.
“Leave it. It’s nothing.” I grunt, settling over a raised root. My body will purge the foreign object from my flesh even without her intervention. Though I admit this one is taking a bit longer than usual, even after she removes the arrowheads.
“They’ve coated the tip with Heket’s saliva. It’s poisonous,” she says in a fluster of panic. An odd tingle spreads across my skin the moment her elven restorative magic flows into me.
It feels strange being cared for and looked after. But I know she’s too weak and fatigued for this. Her pulse rate is getting way too fast from the anxiety.
“Enough, Rhianelle. I will heal,” I say to her.
“It is instant death if you don’t have an antidote—”
I grip her shoulders to keep her in place. “Nothing bad is going to happen to me. Trust me.”
“Do you promise?” she asks, the moisture gathering in her eyes threatening to fall. It baffles the hell out of me that she cares for me.
“Yes,” I reply in a clipped tone. The girl settles quietly beside me. I can tell she’s not convinced, but at least she’s no longer wasting her energy fussing over me.
She casts a slow look at her surroundings warily.
“Where are we?” Her voice shakes, despite her attempts to sound brave. I can almost taste her fear in the air. The dark forest is making Rhianelle nervous like a scared bunny. She doesn’t realize the only real monster in this place is me.
“Why have you brought me here?” she asks again.
“I don’t know.”
All I know is that I needed to get her somewhere safe. Our strange connection demands it. It has turned me into someone irrational. A fucking caveman.
Her head suddenly whirls to a dark figure in the distant trees.
“There’s something over there,” Rhianelle warns me, drawing her sword. She steps in front of me as if she can shield me from that horror.
I narrow my gaze at her.
The girl is out of her mind afraid but she’s keeping me behind her small back. I shake my head in disbelief. This can never be Lilith or her heirs. My breathing grows harsher.
There is no deception.
She is truly Rhianelle Wiolant.
I reach to touch the smooth skin in between her shoulder blades. A small gasp leaves her accompanied by an involuntary shiver. This longing has become unbearable. I plant my forehead against her back because fuck it.
“It’s just some abandoned armor. The guy is dead,” I mutter to her skin.
The stiffness in her muscle subsides. “I thought I saw something,” she says, sheathing her sword.
A sudden chill constricts the air when she turns. The girl suddenly jumps onto my lap, locking her arms around my neck. Her act catches me completely by surprise. I don’t even get the chance to register her emotion. It doesn’t stop me from relishing the way her body molds to mine. I wrap my arm around her back, burying my face in her hair. She’s so soft and warm. It’s like breathing in spring and sunlight.
