Revenge Of The Elf (Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

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    Whatever had been inside to form the man she loved was gone. And it would never return. No matter how much she held him.
    The warmth passing from her body into his did nothing to turn meat into living flesh.
    The elf's jaw tightened.
    Slowly, she rose. Rolled her shoulders and entered the cabin.
    Saw the mess, but didn't register it. Found a blanket and took it outside to cover him while she worked.
    Got a shovel from a small locker on the porch.
    Walked a small distance from the house. Near a stone he'd liked to sit during the summer while she worked the farm. Remembered his eyes following her every movement. Like bees buzzing around her back.
    She'd hated his gaze on her.
    Now, she'd do anything to have him look at her.
    Just one more time.
    Began to dig.
    The snow sighed around her. Lightly at first, it eventually obscured her vision.
    But she kept digging.
    The frozen earth resisted almost every attempt to dig the hole, but even had it been made of steel she would have persisted.
    By the time she'd dug a hole big enough she was surprised to see night had completely consumed the land. She hunted for a small lamp which had miraculously survived the ransacking of their cabin and lit it on the porch to bathe the yard with a warm yellow glow.
    Shivering in the cold, she dragged his body to the makeshift grave. Slid him along the ground as gently as she could. His boots scraped across the ground, leaving two thin lines.
    Her eyes blurred and she wiped at the rippling tears with her shoulder as she struggled with his weight. Even though the burns had taken much of his muscle, Talek was large for an elf. Almost as big as a Fnord.
    She rolled him easily into the hole, noting with regret that it wasn't long enough and his knees had to bend a little for him to fit. She paused, thinking how fragile he looked. How lost. She lay the blanket over him and stared into the grave.
    She wasn't just burying her husband, she thought. She was burying her life.
    Her past.
    Her future.
    Everything she'd ever been was tied to him. She owed him more than she could repay and as she knelt above his body, she wept again. Not for her loss, but for the fact she never had a chance to tell him. Tell him she was to blame.
    To beg for forgiveness.
    The protruding handle poked up through the blanket's folds. She frowned.
    Reached slowly into the grave and took a tight grip on the knife.
    Tugged.
    It refused to give.
    “I'm sorry,” she whispered to his corpse. “I've given you so much pain in your life. But this, I swear, will be the last time.”
    And sobbing with the horror of it, she tore the blade free. The smell of old blood made her gag but, lifting the blade free of the freshly dug grave, she eyed the hook knife with professional curiosity.
    Not the kind of blade a professional would normally use to stab through the sternum. It was too curved for that.
    An amateur, then.
    Or, she thought coldly, Talek had pissed them off enough they'd used the first thing which came to hand.
    She preferred the latter excuse.
    Pulling herself to her feet, she stared down at the covered body of her husband and wished for words fitting the moment. But she'd never been much for words. And those words she knew well enough were bitter.
    Instead, she ran her fingers through her ragged hair and allowed a few more tears to fall. Lifted her hand in helpless salute. A poor imitation of the one used by the Kulsa'Jadean he'd loved so much. Then shovelled dirt back down onto the body. Sweat poured down her face and arms. Her breath erupted as steam and even the thickening snow couldn't cool her down as she worked in a frenzy.
    When it was done, she looked around the yard. Saw the goats milling around nervously in their pen.
    Sighing under her breath, the elf headed toward them, shovel in hand. Unhitched the gate and flung it open. “Get the fuck out,” she growled. “Go on, you dumb animals. Move. Move! Out!”
    Bleating nervously, they skittered through the gate