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Oaths &
Vengeance (excerpt 2)
The room was bigger than I expected. To my right,
about ten elves sat at a large oak table littered with bronze mugs. The booth
had custom seats on three sides attached to the hunter-green walls, plus a few
chairs at the fourth end. They drank and chatted, not even noticing me for the
first minute I stood watching them after shutting the door. I took a few steps
closer, debating what to do. This was going to be awkward with such a large
audience.
“Darrow!” I said just loud enough to reach over all
the other voices.
It quieted to a murmur, and nearly everyone turned to
look at me.
A man with familiar brown and black hair that he’d
tied at the nape of his neck had his face buried in a female elf’s ample chest.
He lifted his head without turning, keeping his eyes on the woman.
“Who is asking?”
Here goes nothing, I thought, and
lowered my hood to reveal my blonde hair. “Aella from Therress.”
The room went from quiet to deathly still.
He stiffened and turned to face me. It was all I could
do to keep from gasping. He was unlike any other man I’d seen before, with
startlingly good looks that should have been criminal. His slate-gray eyes
stared at me as if he could penetrate my soul. He had firm, high cheekbones and
a strong jaw that might as well have been carved from stone.
His skin was a light sand color, telling me he saw a
decent amount of sun, but I couldn’t recognize the shade as common anywhere. At
best guess, that was because he was half-light elf and half dark elf. He had a
muscular build with broad shoulders. I was certain that even without his
powers, he could knock down almost any opponent with a hard punch. The man was
even larger than I’d estimated on the battlefield. I’d never seen a more
beautifully lethal elf, which made me wish to the nameless ones he wasn’t my
enemy. Recalling the memory of my father’s fire-scorched body, burned by
Darrow’s sire, helped me put this deadly man into perspective.
“Aella?” he asked, lifting an arched brow. “The same
half-elf who sent me flying off my horse last week?”
Oh, good. I left an impression on him. “Yes.”
Darrow lifted a hand, and the next thing I knew, my
back slammed against the wall behind me. The air whooshed from my lungs. I had
expected an adverse reaction from him, but not exactly this. It was all I could
do to keep from trembling.
“Hmm, you’re prettier than I expected. It was
difficult to tell from a distance.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What does that have to do with
anything?”
“It’s the only reason I haven’t broken your slender
neck already. What are you doing here?” Darrow asked, arching a dark brow.
I swallowed. He had me plastered against the wall so I
couldn’t move, but he’d applied just the right amount of pressure so I could
still breathe and speak. It wasn’t as bad as him gagging me with my hair the
other day. That was at least something. Maybe he was going to do me the
courtesy of asking questions first, as I’d hoped.
“I need to request a favor from you,” I said, keeping
my gaze on his.
Laughter burst from everyone at the table.
Darrow’s eyes danced with merriment. “Did I rattle
your brain a little too hard?”
Wonderful. The half-dark elf had a sense of humor.
“Would I come into your territory alone at night and
announce myself to a room full of enemies—some of them powerful killers—if I
didn’t have an extremely good reason?” I asked, surprising myself with my
courage to speak to him in such a way. Why couldn’t I be that bold with anyone
else?
He appeared to mull that over momentarily and then
gestured at several elves across the table. “Go check outside and make sure she
didn’t bring company. Considering her special talents, it’s possible. If
there’s no one suspicious out there, stay on guard for now.”
Four elves rushed from the room, each glaring at me as
they passed. I’d ruined their fun night. Darrow ordered the others to leave,
except one female sitting at the table's far end. Based on her matching hair,
skin, and eyes, I assumed the woman was his twin sister, Faina. She was rumored
to be a formidable warrior and close to her brother, but that was all I knew
about her.
“I didn’t come here to fight you,” I said, annoyed by
my awkward position. “Or become a wall ornament.”
Darrow rose from the table and sauntered toward me
with lethal grace. I was tall at 5’10”, but he had to be half a foot taller. He
stopped just before me. It was all I could do to keep my breath steady as his
close presence threatened to overwhelm my senses. I had to remind myself of all
my family members that his side had killed—their faces swimming before my
mind’s eyes. We were enemies, and that would never change.
He brushed a stray hair from my face, almost like a
lover would do, but I knew he was playing with me. “Imagine the notoriety I
could claim if I made you a permanent fixture on this wall. Your head would
look lovely here.”
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