Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Stunned, I watch him walk off with Flap, then turn to take in the woman’s very human face.
“You must be Luke,” she says with a smile and waves at me.
Chapter 37
Luke
It’s been only a month, but interacting with another human is still a bit of a shock. At first glance, elves and us look very much alike, but after weeks in the Nightmare Realm, Carol seems like a goose among ducks. There’s more texture to her skin, her fingers are on the shorter side, which makes me realize that every single elf I’ve interacted with has elongated hands, and her small, round ears are accentuated with a silver cuff that stands out against bright blonde hair.
She’s also not dressed in the ever-popular black and is instead wearing a dress in an emerald hue, which reaches just below her knees and, tastefully, exposes her cleavage.
After we greet each other, she makes a gesture with a gloved hand, and as I follow it, my gaze settles on a picnic blanket spread over the stone floor of the cave. There’s a bottle, crystal glasses, and even an actual picnic basket that looks like straight from an old cartoon.
“My, aren’t you a dreamboat! Best-looking human I’ve seen in ages!” Carol has a Southern accent that feels weirdly out of place yet only makes her seem more human.
I push back some hair behind my ear. “Am I? Maybe it’s been a while since you’ve seen one,” I joke, trying to find my feet in this situation. “Did Prince Kyranis get you to come here?”
“Oh, he did invite me. Gave me quite a scare when that messenger arrived at the door. I’m technically not allowed on palace grounds until after y’all’s wedding, but, gee, I was so very excited to meet someone like me again,” she says and opens the basket, placing real plates and cutlery on the blanket, before following that up with containers full of food.
A bit shell shocked, I sit down next to her to find that the blanket insulates us from the cold and hardness of the rock despite appearing thin.
I think to myself that we are nothing alike, but that won’t really matter.
“It’s my pleasure,” I say, accepting a dainty plate of… apple pie? “I didn’t expect this. I was trying to meet you before, but it’s forbidden, and I didn’t manage. I… worried it might not be allowed because you’d tell me to run away.”
She stills with a spoon filled with black whipped cream, then erupts with a giggle. “Golly, I didn’t think I looked terrified! Now, why would I have told you to run when you’re the future Lord’s promised? I did hear rumors that he’s fast, and likes his partners easy, but to me he seemed perfectly gallant.”
She speaks as if she was brought up by her granny. If that’s the case, then her granny taught her to make a very nice pie, and the black whipped cream doesn’t spoil the flavor one bit.
“I just…” I stuff my face with more food to give myself a second. “I need to know about this bond. I don’t want to be anyone’s slave, but if I marry him, I have to give up some power.”
She winks at me over her own plate. “Well, I heard he already gave some up for you.”
And he did so without the certainty of our bond. Something could always happen to stop our wedding, but he’s already offered me a gift no one can take away. Maybe this means I don't need to talk to Carol anymore. But curiosity gets the best of me.
“Is it a dangerous life?”
“Not what the other Dark Companions would have told you, since, you know, they’re no longer with us,” Carol says, lowering her gaze to the slice of pie on her plate. “But my wife is careful and precise in her shadowcraft. She never put me at risk before herself. In the past… sixty—or was it seventy years—” she mumbles absent-mindedly, swallowing some of the pie, “The one time my wife almost lost control, she had me run away, and won the fight on her own. It’s all about trust.”
I stare at her, because my mind can’t compute that my intuition wasn't wrong. This explains why she seems so… odd. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but she looks twenty-three at most, and yet she must have been here seven years ago, during the last battle with Heartbreak.
“Wait. Are you saying Lady Guinevere found a way to stop you from aging?”
Carol’s eyes settle on mine, and she chuckles. “Gee, no, she is excellent with her sword, but my youthful looks are not due to her efforts. It’s just this place. Humans stop aging once they reach maturity, just like the elves. Unless something kills you, you will not die. It’s quite a blast. All the girls I knew before are likely wrinkled and gray, but look at me: almost eighty and still kicking!”