Page 135 of Forged in Fading

“I trust you,” she said quietly.

“You’re going to hear about this later,” he muttered.

“I’m counting on it.”

A stone dislodged from the hall’s hearth, and Alvara fought every instinct that screamed at her to duck or run as it hurtled toward her chest. Damn it, he could’ve chosen something less lethal. Alvara tugged on her magic without thinking to block the blow, but it stayed silent.

She squeezed her eyes shut, tensing her body for the impending impact.

Nothing. The rock hung only a hair’s breadth away from her chest.

“Good for now. We have our people harvest,” Sten said and turned to the chief, rattling off words in the human tongue.

The stone clattered to the ground, and Alvara dared to speak one last time. “Have them dry it and ground it into a powder.”

“It is done.”

Alvara could finally draw a full breath. They had a chance—a small one, but that was all they needed.

Boden shook his head and glared at the wooden ceiling. “You’re going to be my fading, you know that?”

Alvara smiled. “You should be so lucky.”

Chapter Forty-Six

It had taken days of convincing, or more accurately, arguing with the chief, but Alvara finally stood at Erun’s door. It was really the chief’s home, but Erun lived there along with the rest of Chief Frigar’s close and extended family.

Despite the rapid thrumming of her pulse in her ears, her magic stayed dormant, subdued by a dose of the red powder that would hopefully pave part of their path to victory in the coming battle.

“I’m not sure I’m entirely happy with your discovery of the barrier plant,” Boden grumbled next to her. He had come at Alvara’s request, a chosen representative for the elves, and had also been required to nullify his powers for this meeting.

“Oh, shut it, you big baby.” Alvara bumped shoulders with him, but she felt none of the lightness of her words, not when Sten stood at their backs, the representative for the humans, along with four other human guards, all armed to the teeth. The chief no doubt waited inside to ensure his brother’s safety. If this went wrong…it was better not to think about what would happen.

Alvara rubbed her sweaty palms down her pants before rapping on the door. It swung open to the tense figure of Chief Frigar, who looked past her to Sten. Whatever signal Sten gave in response was enough to satisfy the chief that Alvara and Boden had inhaled the red powder under the guard’s watchful eye, also doubling as a test of its effectiveness in an elf’s lungs rather than their stomach.

Judging by her own silent magic and Boden’s face that looked grumpier than a morning without tea, breathing in the powder worked just as well.

The chief moved aside, and Alvara swallowed. Erun sat next to his son on a wooden bench along the far wall, his shoulders shaking with laughter and his body bearing no remnants of the violence he had endured because of her.

It would have been easier to convince herself this didn’t need to be done, that the man had killed her only living family member, and Alvara had rightfully retaliated, though unintentionally…but none of that was true.

King Einar forced Erun to choose between his family or hers. If Alvara had been in his shoes, she knew she would have made the same choice. And though her loss of control of her magic was mostly accidental, there had still been too large of a part of her that wanted to cause Erun pain. The only way out of the guilt and regret was through.

“Erun?”

He looked up, and too many emotions crossed his face all at once for her to even begin to guess what he was feeling. It was the first time they had seen each other since his almost fading, saved only by the healing of the few Elan demi-elves in Gosibik with their newly discovered powers. Chief Frigar had refused the help of any of the newcomers, not that Alvara could blame him.

She stepped inside, Boden close behind. He reached for her hand, the mere touch of his skin on hers enough to slow her panicked breaths. “I can’t even begin to explain how sorry I am, Erun.” Her voice shook with the memories of that day, the day she almost lost everything that mattered. “You could have gone your entire life without caring enough to tell me the truth about my father, but you didn’t. I convinced myself you were to blame for his fading, when I knew it wasn’t true.”

Erun’s face twisted. “Alvara⁠—”

She continued, not willing to be kicked out yet. “King Einar killed my family. He killed my sister because she wasn’t willing to stand by and watch him persecute humans and demi-elves, he killed my mother through grief, and he killed my father because of his relation to Eloisa and to me.” Boden squeezed her hand, tugging her close enough for their legs to brush. He steadied her, as he always had. “He took them from me, Erun, not you. You were only the weapon he chose to do it. You had no choice, and I’m so sorry.”

Erun stood now, swatting away the chief’s hands when he tried to help. “You are wrong, Alvara.”

Her muscles tightened, her body frozen in place.

“There is always a choice.”