Page 53 of Elf Shot

"No. She's been upset since you vanished, and I didn't appreciate it," he replied.

"Prick."

Arawan grinned. "You have bits of god power in your aura. What have you been up to?"

"Yeah, Layla, what have you been up to?" Imogen demanded, letting her go and stealing her beer at the same time.

"Nothing. I don't know what you're talking about. I have had no gods up in my aura."

"Don't lie. I can see three separate signatures, Layla," Arawan argued. He folded his arms, and Layla instantly felt like she was in trouble.

"Three! You went to a god orgy or something?" Imogen asked, waggling her brows.

"Not that kind of signature, my love. It's power. You have been around Arne and Vili, but who is the third?" Arawan squinted his dark eyes at the air above her head. He started laughing. "Well, well, you actually found the old bastard. Do we need to be worried?"

"No. It's fine," Layla replied quickly. She gave him a meaningful look. "And it's a private matter."

Arawan's smile widened. "Have you met your sister? You're better off just telling her."

Imogen was looking between them, and her eyes narrowed. "Tell me what, Lay Lay. Arawan? What's going on?"

"Oh, look at the time. I was meant to be meeting Bayn at Ritual. I'll see you there, darling."

"Hey! Don't you—" Imogen began, but Arawan blew her a kiss and vanished. Imogen let out a sound between a growl and a curse and rounded on Layla. Her eyes had gone black, a side effect of whatever power she was now sharing through her bond with Arawan. "Layla Brigid Ironwood, what the fuck have you been doing?"

Layla's ovaries shriveled, and she wet her lips. "Promise you won't tell Mom?"

The sun was down, and the three women were finishing off pizza when Layla finally finished telling Freya and Imogen everything.

"Tomorrow I'm going to stay with the elves until this is all over," she said finally. She raised her chin a little. "And you aren't going to stop me."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Lay Lay," Imogen said, opening another beer.

"Really? I thought you would tell me to use my common sense and go home to Ireland?"

Freya snorted. "Like Imogen would ever recommend using common sense."

Imogen shrugged. "It's boring, that's why. I only wanted to know what's really happening. I'm not here to stop you, sis."

"Really? You're not going to like tell me that I don't know Arne well enough to mate with him or that the Norns were high when they decided to write me into their prophecies?" she asked. Acceptance was the last thing Layla expected.

"Do you love him?" Imogen asked.

Layla turned red. "I don't know."

"Pretty sure you wouldn't have gone on a camping trip into Svartalfheim if you didn't. I know how you feel about spiders."

Layla picked at the label on her beer bottle. "It's way too early for love, right?"

Freya and Imogen shared a look. "When it's the right person, time doesn't really come into it. It takes our brains longer to catch up with what the heart automatically knows," Imogen said. She replaced Layla's empty beer. "The heart wants what the heart wants. I don't blame it wanting the elf. He's fit as fuck."

"And heroic. You should have seen the elves we rescued talk about him," Freya added, fanning herself with the back of her hand. "They got all breathy when saying his name alone. He's a good guy, otherwise his reputation would be very different. You are going to spend some time with the elves, you'll see what I mean."

It felt silly to consider love so soon, but Layla's heart had always been insistent when it came to Arne. Maybe she did just need time for the rest of her to catch up.

"Yeah, she's in love. Look at that face. I've only ever seen Layla make that face over Tolkien shit," Imogen teased. "No shame in feeling those feels, sis. Just don't run from them. We are Ironwoods. We don't run from shit."

Layla nodded. She had tried putting distance between her and Arne, and it had only made her miserable. She wasn't going to do that to herself anymore.

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