Elva looked at Donnacha, so close she could touch him, and wondered if she was dreaming. “Is this really happening?”
Angus strode up to them, wiping his sword clean. “Damned trolls. No loyalty among any of them. They just want to see the world fighting, and then when the fight’s done, they go back to their homes. Cowards, the lot of them.”
“Angus,” Donnacha said, reaching for his cousin and tugging him into a tight hug. “It’s good to see you.”
“The element of surprise always works, don’t you think?”
“Worked surprisingly well.”
“The queen didn’t see it coming.”
The two of them laughed, and Elva stared at them in shock. She couldn’t process what was happening. The high of battle still running in her veins, she clapped her hands together in a great crack that got their attention. “If you could have broken the deal by killing the queen all this time, why did you send me here?” Elva asked.
Angus shrugged. “I needed you to stall everyone. Donnacha could do that a bit, I was certain of it, but the Troll Queen has never been afraid of men. A woman, however? That would have caught her attention. Besides, I needed to make a sword that could actually cut through that enchanted skin of hers.”
Elva’s jaw fell open. “I was a distraction?”
“Well, you were coming here anyway. Might as well use you.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me that from the beginning?”
Angus gave her an unimpressed look. “Do you really think you would have gone if I told you I had everything handled and I just needed you to stall her?”
No. She likely wouldn’t have. Elva wasn’t particularly a fan of being the bait dangled in front of enemies. She much preferred to be the person doing the fighting.
She grumbled a quick, “Probably not.”
Donnacha burst out laughing and traded his cousin for her. He pulled her tight against him, stealing the breath from her lungs with his hold. “Come on now, faerie. Let’s get out of here before the trolls change their mind and decide they’d rather have another fight.”
21
Donnacha strode toward his freedom with a feeling of elation fluttering in his breast. How could anyone else understand his emotions right now? The sudden realization that he wasn’t cursed anymore and was free from the clutches of the worst sort of faerie.
Elva stalked next to him, her eyes flicking from side to side as she watched the trolls let them leave without complaint. The woman wasn’t quite what he expected, he’d admit that.
She’d come all this way for him. Found the troll kingdom, fought the princess, even managed to frighten the Troll Queen before her death. And he had no doubts the Troll Queen had been frightened. Of course, she had.
The beast who had cursed him recognized the kind of faerie who had stood before her. It wasn’t the threat that Elva was going to attack her. She hadn’t been that kind of nervous. But that this was the future of the faerie realm. A woman who would stand for what she believed in. A woman who could take what she wanted by fire or storm and come out in the end victorious.
Such a creature like Elva would terrify those who followed the old ways. They wouldn’t understand the way her blood curdled at the mere thought of chains around her fingers in the form of a wedding ring. They couldn’t see the way she affected the world around her without even trying.
Elva was the future of women who were burned by lovers, family, friends. She had endured the flames, and now she walked out of the ashes a new woman. Reborn stronger, deadlier, and infinitely more capable.
He loved her all the more for it.
Angus turned away from the troll kingdom, back toward the home Donnacha desperately wanted to see. the dwarven kingdom whose halls of stone and emeralds called to him.
He wanted to hear the dwarves singing. He wanted to see his family, his friends, all the people who had never given up on him. Even though they hadn’t come for him, he had felt their prayers like a wave of cool air every night.
“Bring him home,” they had sang to the stars. “Bring him home to our arms.”
Could he go that way, though? Elva turned in the opposite direction, magic sparking at her fingertips. She was creating a portal.
Something in him shuddered. He realized, without question that, in that moment, if he let her go now, she would never return. She was afraid of what would happen next. In truth, so was he. What were they now that no curse stood between them?
Were they lovers? Were they fighters who would free others? Or were they infinitely more than that, two halves of a whole who had been searching for each other?
He blew out a breath and looked back at Angus who had paused. They stared at each other for a time, unspoken words flowing between them.
Finally, the dwarf king nodded toward Elva. “I’ll see you at home soon.”
“It was good to see you.”
“And you.”
He turned his back on the king and made his way to Elva’s side. She’d raised her hands, where glittering gold magic spilled from them.
“You know spells now?” he said quietly, standing behind her so as not to disturb.
“I’ve always known spells.”
“You never used them.”
Elva looked at him over her shoulder, not stopping the wave like movement of her fingers. “I couldn’t.”
“What changed?”
“You.”
She looked away from him then, and he was glad for it. His chest had expanded so much in masculine pride he was embarrassed. But hell, she’d just said he was the reason why she could use magic again, and damned if that wasn’t better than anything else he’d ever heard in his life.
A bright spot of golden light opened on the ground. He’d never seen a portal that looked like that. She’d created it, though, and that meant he was going to walk through it with her.
Elva tucked her hands behind her back and slowly
