Chapter Six
Not happening.
I brought a fist up, punching the sword from Victor's throat. The blade cut into my skin but I ignored the biting wound, instead lunging half out of the pit to grab my gun. I aimed it wildly at the big elf with the sword and squeezed the trigger. My shot went wide, but the elf still jumped back. I took the opportunity to drag my body from the mud. He brought his sword down at me; Victor shouted, and a clash of metal rang as one of his knives deflected the sword.
The mud slowed my movements, but I still managed to get to my feet and press the base of my gun against the big elf's chin while he defended against Victor. The elf tensed. He lifted his sword, but I shook my head
"Only do that if you don't want to keep your head," I threatened. "And that goes for all of you. Even the quickest of your methods of killing me won't be immediate. I'll have time to pull this trigger."
I didn't glance around to make sure they were lowering their weapons. Doing so would leave me vulnerable to attack. The mud sucked down at Victor's body as he climbed out of the mud pit. He grabbed one of his knives and grabbed the head elf, putting the knife to his throat.
"Where is my sister?" the prince snarled.
I turned so our backs were together and aimed the gun at the other elves, making them back away.
"Your sister?" the big elf asked. "Charlotte is missing?"
"Don't pretend that you don't know where she is, Damien." This giant elf fathered Charlotte's baby? Whoa. I saw the draw – he was a monster. Too bad he wanted to kidnap her now. "Did you hire a human to take her, or did you have one of your men break the laws you cherish so much and drive that truck?"
"Truck?" Damien laughed. "What are you on about, Victor? If you've lost Charlotte, it's not my doing. That's what you get for trusting a dwarf to protect your sister instead of your own kin."
I grunted. "This dwarf has a nasty temper. I'll start shooting if you don't tell us where she is."
Damien's voice was low when he answered. "I did not take her. If I had, I'd have taken her back to Raindrop, not wander out here, tracking you. I thought you meant to throw us off the trail."
"Then why follow?" Victor demanded.
"I thought I'd use you to keep Charlotte from meeting that spineless prince she intends to bind herself to."
I snorted, but to my surprise, Victor released Damien. As I made a noise of protest in my throat, he turned to me. He grabbed my wrist and lowered the gun. I stared at him, slack-jawed. Was he insane? The elves all pressed in closer with their weapons raised. They were still planning on killing us. But when I tried to raise my gun, Victor's hand gripping my wrist tightly stopped me.
"Let me go," I said.
"Never mind them. You said that you received threats from trolls."
I flinched. "Uh… yeah, I did say that."
Victor narrowed his eyes at me.
"It was late, I was tired, Owen was tired. You were being all 'let's drive through the night'. I spent good money booking that motel, and if we didn't use it I'd be out the cash. Maybe that's not so important to you, but I can barely make rent since the guild bumped the team to a higher bracket. Nobody wants to pay that much for a half-dwarf and her male partner."
"You lied to me," Victor hissed. "Why didn't you just tell the truth?"
I shook him off. "Because in my experience, telling clients something they don't want to hear with just the truth doesn't work. We can't keep driving because we're tired? 'Why are you tired? I thought dwarves could go for weeks without sleep?' 'What do you mean you have to take a bathroom break? Why are you drinking so much water that you have to pee once every five hours?' It's exhausting."
"Eloise—"
Damien cleared his throat. "As amusing as this is, let's not drag on the inevitable."
He gestured, and two elves leaped at me. My lingering distraction allowed them to yank both of my hands behind my back. Victor ducked under a fist that swung at him and punched one of the elves that held me in the face with his knife handle.
I growled in my throat. "Just stab him!"
The prince ignored me, dropping the knife altogether to jab two stiff fingers into the other elf's throat. When Damien stepped forward, Victor raised his hands. I rose the gun, and he twisted it from my hand and tossed it away.
If I still had my gun, I'd shoot him. "Are you crazy?"
"This does not have to end in death," Victor said.
Damien shook his head. "You brought this half-dwarf to a sacred place. You know you will die for this. I'll at least make it quick. I'll tell Charlotte you died bravely."
"I brought Eloise here, yes." Victor's arm snaked around my middle and pulled me tight against him. "But don't call her 'half-dwarf' as though that is all there is to her. She is also my wife-to-be."
I squeaked. My expression surely gave away the lie, but Damien didn't even glance in my direction. Instead, his gaze remained on Victor's face. A heavy frown creased his brows. The other elves glanced at each other nervously. So if I married an elf, I was allowed in the sacred mud pit? I tried not to look as shocked as I felt.
"You are going to marry a half-dwarf?" Damien pressed. "You, a prince of Raindrop? Your parents—"
"My parents don't know yet, but they will soon. She will be joined to the elves by marriage and blood. Already she carries my child." Victor lovingly caressed my stomach. Which, though covered in mud, was still naked. I shivered, wanting to hide. My face burned. "Elf, dwarf and human joined in one bloodline. What better significance for the future?"
All eyes fixed on my belly then. I curled inward, wrapping my arms around myself. "Okay, that is enough. I'm not pregnant!"
Damien chuckled, his expression clearing. He put away his weapon and bowed towards Victor. "I would expect something like this from Charlotte. But it seems you are more driven to progression than I realized, your highness. Congratulations on your coming child."
"I'm not pregnant," I insisted. "We haven't even had sex!"
"I would expect a dwarf to make such claims," Damien said, nodding towards me. "Your restrictive customs around sexuality are barbaric."
"Whatever! I'm not—"
He ignored me as he turned to Victor. "Was the child the reason you hired her to escort you and Charlotte?"
"I wanted to spend more time with my wife-to-be, yes," Victor replied coolly.
My eyes were slits by this time. I hissed a string of curses under my breath and reached for my shirt. One of the other elves offered me a handkerchief. Glaring at him and it, I took it and began wiping off the mud. Well, at least they weren’t going to kill us anymore. And it seemed like this pit really was magical. Not only did my leg feel better, but the cut on my hand was already scabbed over.
"Somebody still stole Charlotte," Victor said, starting to wipe the mud off himself as well. "Damien, can I count on your help to retrieve her?"
"What?" I demanded. "He was attacking us! You can't ask someone who was going to kill you five minutes ago to help us now."
Damien frowned at me. "I would not have enjoyed killing you. I have high respect for Victor. And Charlotte carries my child. I will do what I must to keep her safe. Even if in the end she doesn't choose me."
"But he was going to kill us," I said to Victor.
"He's not anymore."
I threw my hands into the air, shaking my head. "Elves!"