Page 79 of The Broken Elf King
As we passed, Raife stopped, tucking us into the shadows and eyeing the palace in the distance with disdain.
“I could sneak in. Find Zaphira. Kill her. Meet up with you,” he breathed against my ear.
I shook my head, pointing to the large columns that decorated the front walk. There were at least twenty of them. “You see those columns?”
He nodded.
“They are hollow. A guard stands inside each one. And there are probably fifty more inside and twenty outside her bedchamber. Raife, you’re good but notthatgood.”
The hope died in his eyes and I hated that I was the one to do that to him.
“We need the others. We need an army,” I told him.
“I want to go home,” the girl whimpered, still clutching my hand.
I was torn between my own emotions, the broken girl beside me, and now Raife’s bloodthirsty revenge. It was causing my empathic gift to go haywire and overwhelm me.
“My aunt is probably worried, and someone will find those bodies soon,” I informed Raife.
He dipped his head, a defeated frown pulling at his lips, then we ran for the gardens.
It was a short run, but I counted the amount of times he looked back at the castle.
Five.
Five times he wrestled with ditching us and going after the woman who murdered his entire family in one night. I didn’t blame him. We found my aunt sitting near the open storm drain clutching her bag, and Raife helped all of us down into the tunnel quickly. He joined us inside the ankle-deep water and then covered the grate overhead so we couldn’t be followed.
Illuminating our path, we made it to the hollowed-out log boat at the river without incident. Raife had to take my aunt across first, then double back for me and the girl. She told me her name was Natasia, and she wouldn’t leave my side, no doubt enjoying the numbness of not having to feel her emotional damage and pain. BecauseIwas feeling it all—nausea swam inside my stomach, and my mind was in a dark place. But I kept quiet. This poor girl had just been tortured within an inch of her life and then stripped of her power. I was going to carry that pain as long as I could.
We trudged through the woods, Raife carrying my aunt’s suitcase in one hand and guiding her elbow with the other. Watching him tend to her like she was his own family just made my hopelessness deepen.
When we finally reached the hole in the wall, I didn’t have much will to live. What was the point? No one would love me now that I had no powers. I couldn’t tell my parents I was… magically castrated.
I shook my head, dislodging thoughts that were not my own, and looked down at Natasia, who rested her head on my shoulder.
Raife helped my aunt through the gap in the wall and then reached for Natasia just as the siren sounded behind us at Nightfall Castle.
“Time to ride fast and hard out of here,” Raife said, yanking the girl from my clutches and shoving her through the opening in the stone.
I stood there in shock, a shell of self-pity as Raife stepped up to thread his fingers into my hair and cup my face. “Kailani, look at me.”
I looked up at him, realizing that I was sobbing uncontrollably.
“Kailani, listen to my voice. My mother had to learn when to let go of other people’s emotions. As an empath, you take everything, absorb it like a sponge and process it way too fast. You have to remember whoyouare. You are not her. You are loved, you have a family, you—”
“Youdon’t love me,” I said between sobs. “And now that I can’t heal, no one will.”
Raife looked concerned, his eyes going to my lips. “Kailani, snap out of it! This isn’t you.” He shook my face a little in his hands, but I tried to pull away from him.
“Just let me go. Let me die!” I screamed, wanting to go back and let them find me, kill me rather than live like this without my healing magic. I was her. She was me. We were one.
Raife pulled me against him, pinning my body to his, and then leaned forward, brushing his lips over mine ever so softly. It reminded me of our first kiss, the one when he was drunk and said he didn’t remember. He was toying with me, teasing me. And I loved every second of it.
“Lani, come back to me.I need you,” he whispered against my mouth. I gasped and the storm cloud of emotions retreated, and I was suddenly myself again. My chest heaved, the sobbing stopped, and I finally felt clearheaded. It was like being intoxicated and then rapidly sobering.
I shook myself, pulling back to look at him. “You remember our first kiss?” I asked him.
He gave me a crooked smile. “A man doesn’t forget a kiss like that. I’ll remember it as long as I live.” He then dropped my face and pulled me towards the hole in the wall as my head swam with what he’d just said. Hedidremember the kiss and he’d used it again to bring me out ofwhateverthat was.
