“How much do you know about elves?” he asked.
I shrugged, wincing as the movement tugged on an ache in my shoulders. “Not much.”
There was a short pause. “Elves, like gargoyles, have a true mate. Ourfylgjais what we call them. But it’s a little different than most supes. Elves’ souls don’t die, but are reborn. This means that ourfylgjacould be born a thousand years after us or before. It just makes finding them extra special.”
“And did you have one?” I asked, already seeing where Ambrose’s story was heading.
“Yeah, I did. I’m a pretty young soul compared to some of the other elves, so most of my kind told me it could take a couple of centuries to meet them… but it didn’t. She was right next door,” Ambrose said and I could hear the smile in his voice. “Her name was Astri, my star. Everything about her was perfect and we spent a hundred years in bliss. Then, in 1985, we were in New Orleans and she was taken by a group of hunters while I was out buying groceries.”
Ambrose paused to take a shaky breath.
“By the time I managed to find her, barely anything of my star remained. They’d cut pieces of her body away like she was a fucking barbie doll and had drained her of every drop of blood she possessed. The only thing substantial left of Astri was her earrings,” Ambrose said, his voice tight like he was trying not to cry. “And it’ll be those earrings that save our asses.”
“You said elves reincarnated, will Astri come back?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Another pause.
“Honestly? I don’t know. Souls that have a traumatic end may never leaveÁlfheimagain to return to the earthly plain. I haven’t felt her in almost fifty years, so I’m not holding out hope that she’ll ever come back to me when I’ve failed her so miserably.”
“You didn’t fail her,” I told him quietly, feeling the conviction of my words with every bone in my body. “The world failed her.”
Silence swelled between us for what felt like forever before Ambrose finally spoke again.
“Regardless of my sordid past, you can understand why I don’t want Cash to feel the way I did. I’d also like to not end up as a black-market scientist’s next dissection, so let’s do this.” Ambrose said before giving my shoulders a push. “As soon as you are on your feet, make a beeline across the road to the tree line. I’ll be right behind you.”
Without saying anything else, Ambrose had me up on my feet and I was off running. Every inch of my body hurt, as the rapid motion pulled at scabbed and sore muscles, but the shouts from behind us spurred me on across the paved road and into the thicket of trees.
As I ran, I could hear Ambrose crashing through the woods behind me, his footfalls heavy as a whistling noise began to fill the air.
“They’re shooting at us, start to zigzag, human, or else you are going to be a crossbow pin cushion in no time!” I heard Ambrose shout.
I used to hike with my friends once upon a time during my university days. We’d get dressed up in our cutest athleisure wear and hike up a semi-steep mountain before taking cute pictures at the top for Instagram. We always stuck with the ‘beginner’ hikes and I always remembered huffing and puffing regardless of the difficulty.
But those hikes had nothing on running through pure forest. There was no beaten path in front of me, just underbrush that snagged at my ankles and trees that whipped out to try and pull me off my feet if I didn’t pay close enough attention.
A bolt glanced off of a tree trunk that was next to my head, sending bark flying everywhere and pulling a surprised scream from my mouth.
“Less screaming, more running!” Ambrose barked as he bypassed me, grabbing my hand on the way and pulling me along with him.
My lungs burned from the effort, but soon we came upon a wide creek that stopped us in our tracks.
Ambrose cursed under his breath. “We’ve got to go through it, it’s pretty shallow,” he said, already pulling me forward.
“Wouldn’t it be better to skirt along it to find a thinner crossing?” I asked, gasping as the frigid water came up to my knees.
The elf shook his head. “No, these assholes are trained to spread out. If we go left or right, we’re bound to run into one of them eventually. The only way is forward.”
We managed to get halfway across the creek before the sound of bodies crashing through the underbrush came from behind us. I glanced back, trusting Ambrose to keep pulling me through the creek, just as one of the men stumbled out from behind a tree.
“Got ya now, you elf mongrel,” one of the men said as he lifted his crossbow, aiming it straight for Ambrose.
“Get down!” I shouted and dropped fully into the water, dragging Ambrose down with me as the bolt sailed over our heads.
My head went under and ice filled my veins as I came up sputtering.
Glancing back to the shore, I saw that the man was already starting to reload.
“Up, up,” Ambrose barked, half-dragging me up the opposite bank of the creek and then we were off again. “Thanks, by the way,” he called over his shoulder, his long dark hair flying behind him as we ran for our lives.
