Beyond a Darkened Shore(52)

The giant raised his axe to deliver what would certainly be a death blow, and Sleipnir jumped out of the way so suddenly I lost my seat.

I landed hard, my breath leaving my lungs in an instant. With my gaze skyward, I saw a black bird making slow circles above us.

In one stride, the horse-faced giant was upon me again. It was my own mental powers that kept me breathing—I forced my protesting lungs to draw air. I rolled to the side to avoid his axe. He brought it down again, but this time, it met with a clang of metal. Leif stood between us, meeting the giant blow for blow.

I stumbled back to my feet. The earth trembled, and I jerked my head up to see the other giant bearing down on us. As fast as he was, he was slowed by obvious injuries to the tendons in his legs. I watched Leif repeat the move on the horse-faced giant before us. He slid beneath the axe’s downward swing and sliced the giant just above the ankle.

With a roar, the horse-faced giant stumbled back. Leif stood in front of me, blocking my body with his as the other giant reached us.

Up close, their height was dizzying. One’s head was so massive and deformed, it looked like a craggy mountain face. Leif charged, but the giant grabbed him like a child would a toy. He held Leif aloft, his fingers tightening around the entire middle of Leif’s body. In moments he would be crushed like an insect.

My mind lashed out, snatching the giant’s like a bird of prey. Something warm and wet began to drip out of my nose. I forced him to drop Leif and touched the tip of my finger to my upper lip. It came back red with blood.

The next instant, I was airborne.

The horse-faced giant roared in my face. His fingers were longer and thicker than my legs, and he wrapped them ever tighter around my middle. I struggled wildly, trying to gain even an inch of breathing room. His grip only tightened. I bit down on the finger nearest me, but there was no reaction.

Leif shouted as the giant who held me in his hand kicked him viciously in the ribs.

Releasing the other giant, I called again, and the power within me struggled to respond. The horse-faced giant’s fingers continued to close around me until with a scream, I felt every rib give way. With a burst of energy born of desperation, I blocked out the pain and switched my hold to his mind. His fingers lost their grip on me, and I fell in a broken heap next to Leif. If Leif had the power to heal himself of such trauma, it would certainly not be in time.

Through my haze of agony, I felt a warmth touch my fingers. Leif had reached out to me, his hand just brushing mine. I longed to grab hold, but I could no more wiggle my fingers than I could stand. My sweet sisters’ faces flashed before my mind; a pain far deeper than that of my broken bones twisted inside me. I had failed them.

A dark desperation gripped me as the horse-faced giant laughed above us. I wouldn’t lie here limply and accept my fate. I would not.

Something snapped within me, even as the blood streamed from my nose and my many wounds. My eyelids fell closed, darkness swallowing me whole. The door of light appeared once again, though this time, I could sense movement beyond the threshold.

Pull yourself through, a voice called.

Not without him, I thought.

With the last of my waning strength, I took hold of Leif’s hand. I could sense the giants looming above us. Inwardly, I dragged myself and Leif toward the door.

Agony shattered my body in a million pieces. The black nothingness of death threatened to take hold, but I fought it, my gaze fixed on the lit doorway.

I fell through, my fingers entwined with Leif’s.

In a free fall, our bodies descended through blinding white light.

And then there was nothing.





14





I blinked slowly into awareness. Bright sunlight beat down on my body, deliciously warm. The grass cradled me like the plushest down. A soft breeze teased my hair and stirred the leaves in the tree above me. But in a rush, I remembered.

I jolted upward as if I’d been branded, coming to my feet in a surge. I braced myself for an onslaught of pain, but there was nothing. When I gingerly touched the sites of my old wounds, I found nothing but healed skin.

A copse of trees surrounded me. They were like wardens of the woods, their leaves gently waving in the breeze. The trunks were so wide and gnarled there could be no doubt they were ancient, and for a moment, every muscle in my body tensed. Surely we had not stumbled into the Faerie Tunnel again.

“Leif?” I called, softly at first, then with increasing anxiety when I heard no response. I spun in a circle, my heart pounding rapidly. “Leif!”

The breeze picked up, drawing my eye to the softly rustling golden hair on Leif’s head.

He lay in the shade of one of the enormous trees, his limbs jutted out at strange angles to his body, as though he had been flung to the ground in a state of unconsciousness.

I sprinted to his side. Painful talons of fear held me in their grip as I watched his chest for the telltale rise of a breath. His clothing was shredded, but the skin underneath was smooth, as though already healed. After an agonizing moment, he took a breath. It was shallow, but there. Relief made my shoulders sag.

“Leif?” I said again softly. His eyes fluttered, but he did not stir.

My gaze traveled from his chest to his legs; even his leather leggings had been torn apart, yet there was no blood, no bruising, no sign we had nearly left this world. How long had we been here?

Tentatively, I moved the leather and chain mail covering his torso aside, but as soon as my fingers touched the warm skin beneath, Leif’s eyes flew open.