Page 6 of Dark Elf's Good Girl

I sigh too.

“Listen,” I lean forward and fold my hands on my desk. “Calix is never going to change. I know you’ll always have hope for him because you think that is your duty. But we all need to realize that Calix doesn’t really care about any of us. No matter how much we may want him to.”

Lorien nods slowly and then gets up and smooths her hand over my head again. I lean into the feel of her rough, calloused hand against my head.

“Get some rest.” Her voice is soft with age and kindness.

“And I’ll check on you in the morning.”

I nod as she leaves quietly.

“Good night, Lorien.” I murmur the words as the door closes softly behind her.

When I lean back in my chair, a twinge of pain ripples through my lower back. I realize then that I have been sitting all day.

I am usually quite active, I have been since I was a child, but for the past few weeks all I have been doing is sitting at my desk and trying to make trade deals work.

It is time to stretch your legs.

I don’t want to leave my study, because I am trying to avoid my parents, and if I go to bed now, I’ll never get these new deals done before morning.

I walk up and down in the office for half an hour and do some stretches, when I hear the rattle of the carriage wheels on the driveway that leads up to the manor.

That must be Calix.

I go over to the window – it is close to midnight by now – and I watch as he jumps out of the carriage.

He is grinning happily, as he reaches into the carriage and pulls a human woman out.

She is twisting and struggling against his grip – she has already sensed the danger she is in.

Calix drags her to the front of the house.

I hear them as they come in.

Calix takes her past my study, up to his room, and I also hear her struggling against him all the way to his room.

My heart sinks as I listen to her muffled cries as Calix’s bedroom door slams shut.

I sit down in my chair and lean over the notes I have made, even as I know that this is probably the last time I, or anyone really, will see that woman.

3

ISLA

“It’s been four nights,” I grumble beneath my breath. “What the fuck does he want?”

The dark elf with the yellow eyes, the one who made me stumble during my act, has returned four nights in a row.

I saw him earlier when I peeked through the curtains at stage two to check on Allie’s costume.

The costume she’s wearing tonight is one that she made herself, and she was stressed out that it would fall apart.

My heart stuttered in my chest when I saw him. And now, I am in the changing rooms, pacing up and down as I think about what I’m going to do.

“Maybe he isn’t here for you,” I try to reason with myself.

And maybe he isn’t. Except he has parked himself in front of stage one – my stage – every night.

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