White Stag (Permafrost #1)(40)
“Get ready,” I said through gritted teeth to Elvira, throwing a glance behind me to make sure Soren was prepared. He was.
Arrows rained down from the sky.
I kicked Panic into a hard gallop, running him across the sheer edges of the icy pathways. My vision blurred at the stream of arrows streaking toward us. There were so many the air was thick with them and I was forced to dodge as I rode. Even so, multiple arrows nicked my skin. I quieted my heart and urged Panic onward down the slippery slope despite the hesitation that filled his every limb.
The pathway twisted into two forks, and I took the one leading to higher ground. Soren, right on my tail, nodded toward me and took the other. I unhooked one foot from its stirrup and propped it against the saddle, paying no mind to the vicious rocking back and forth or the shower of rock and ice above me. My eyes scanned the horizon, and a flash of bronze caught my gaze. I shot.
A goblin fell out of the sky, tumbling down to the path I raced on. His power slammed into my body, but the stinging as it sank into my skin was nothing compared to the adrenaline pumping through my veins. Below, Rekke had her twin daggers out, hugging her body tight to the saddle as she slashed at the two goblins who came up beside her, her moves as graceful as a dance. I brought another arrow into my bow, shooting one of the goblins attacking her and watching with satisfaction as he fell.
Another goblin burst from his crevice, a battle cry on his lips. Panic swerved to avoid the blows, and I dug my heel into his side, turning him before he toppled over the mountainside. The goblin raced after us, his speed turning his body into a blur.
“Too cowardly to come out and fight face-to-face?” I taunted, my lips pulled back to bare my teeth. “Is an ambush all you can do? How long did you lay in wait for someone to stumble across your path?”
I didn’t wait for an answer, instead freeing my feet and letting go of Panic’s reins. I hooked my bow and quiver across my shoulders and slid down the saddle until I was level with the goblin, taking a swing with my axe. His eyes were black in his gaunt, hollow face, and his features were sharp and wolf-like. Gone was any unearthly beauty he may have possessed—this was the face of a killer. He howled in pain as I hit his side and fear spread through me like cold water as the goblin sprang onto Panic’s back and grappled with me for the reins.
“Who’s a coward?” he snarled.
Panic’s sides heaved, and he slammed his body against the cliff face. Good boy, I thought. Get him off your back.
The goblin swung at me with a blade that I barely had time to deflect. He pressed down on me, using his weight against mine. The ground beneath Panic’s feet came closer and closer to my head.
Wincing in pain as my shoulders brushed against the rocks, I grabbed Panic’s cinch and braced myself. The goblin let go, and my legs hit the path with searing pain as Panic dragged me along with him. Grunting with effort, I hooked my legs into the cinch and began to inch my way back up to the saddle.
My axe fell somewhere down the cliffside, and though my bow and arrows were firmly attached to my back, there was no way to reach them. With gritted teeth, I fumbled with the straps on my bracer and pulled out the bent, iron nail.
Before the nail had merely stung. Now it blazed with a type of pain I didn’t know existed. Blood trickled in my mouth as I bit down hard on my cheek to keep from screaming. But if it was this bad for me—someone who wasn’t even a full goblin—it would be Hel for my attacker. With the last of my strength, I swung upward and plunged the nail into his throat. His eyes grew wide and his long-nailed fingers clutched at his throat, scratching until rivulets of blood ran down his collarbone. The skin grew black and putrefied, flaking off to expose the muscles and veins underneath. I kicked him off Panic, watching as he fell a thousand feet below. I curled my lips at the smell of burning flesh as I shoved the nail back into the bracer. Dark-red marks covered my fingertips.
Adrenaline kicked my senses into overdrive, and the power I absorbed reached out wildly to touch the other fighters. Below me, Rekke finished off her last attacker, but one of her hands was draped across her bloody belly, holding in her insides. The young goblin’s laughter would never brighten the forest again. Hatred burned away the pain in my body. She was young, so young. She shouldn’t even have been on the Hunt, and now she would die before ever growing into her own.
I glared as Elvira hacked away at the last of her pursuers with her sword and dagger, not even sparing a glance at her dying niece. She’d gotten what she wanted. At the very bottom of the trails Soren streaked by on Terror, the dead littered around him like fallen leaves. His face, body, and hair were streaked blood red, and the static of power that pounded through him stole the breath from my lungs. The hard muscles in his arms and shoulders rippled with strength. For once, the sight of a blood-covered goblin didn’t terrify me. With an arrow pulled back toward my chin, I shot again and again, helping him fell his foes.
A horse screamed, and I broke out of my daze a moment too late. A dagger was stuck in Panic’s eye. He skidded through the ice and fell, only to rise and fall again. Blood gushed from his wound, and he shrieked as the life drained out of him. I jumped off the horse, my own eye so full of pain I barely stopped myself from ripping it out. I skidded across the rocks, the hard fall and momentum bruising and battering my body. My insides turned to fire as the animal connected to my mind died. With my body screaming, I pushed myself upright to find Elvira a few levels below me with an arrow aimed right at my heart.