White Stag (Permafrost #1)(41)

I gripped the cliff face and pulled myself up, staggering at the weight of my own body. From off in the distance someone shouted my name, and phantom aches told me to lie down and give in to the cold numbness spreading through me. A single thought broke through the cold.

I will not die. I will not die here in the ice. I will not die here by that woman’s blade. I will not die. I will not die unless I take her with me.

I jumped off the side of the ledge, free-falling down and down and down. The wind whipped my face, stealing tears from my eyes. My body was boneless, weightless, melting as I fell through the air onto the wide-eyed goblin below me. Bet you’ve never seen that before.

The impact knocked the breath from my lungs, and I gasped for air. But I had my hands in Elvira’s hair, my legs wrapped around her torso, screeching like a madwoman. The cat reared and fell as Elvira’s sword stuck through its belly in the confusion.

We wrestled on the ground, her lengthening nails tearing chunks of skin out of my shoulders, ripping at my clothes. I reached up, digging my fingers into her eye sockets until they were warm with her blood. Rolling over and over, weapons forgotten, I slammed against the dwindling ground. Above me, Elvira’s sightless eyes blazed with fury, and blood streaked down her once-beautiful face.

“You’re supposed to die!” she shrieked. “It can’t be this hard to kill such a pathetic thing!” I grabbed a chunk of rock and bashed her in the head, fighting to get her fingers away from my chest. Once they sunk in, all she had to do was rip my heart out.

“I told you I was hard to kill!” The taste of her blood in my mouth sent me into a frenzy, and I slammed both hands over her ears.

Momentarily deaf, she let go, and I scrambled back away from the edge of the cliff. My bow and quiver pressed into my back, mocking me.

Elvira lunged and grabbed at my shoulders with her clawed hands, leaving bloody grooves in my skin. She slammed me against the back of the cliff as ice shards fell around us. I brought my knee down on her crotch, and she yowled like a dog, but didn’t let go. Blood plastered my face, blinded my eyes, and covered the ledge in a slippery pool.

A sharp stone cut into my back, wetness seeping through the once-fine tunic. Elvira and I rolled until I was facing open air.

“You’re not so pretty now.” She smiled in a bloody, freakish grin.

“Take a look at yourself.” I spat blood in her face. In the split second it took for her to regain her bearings, my legs were already wrapped tightly around her torso, and my fingers dug deep into the roots of her hair.

“If I’m going to die,” I snarled, “then you’ll die with me.” Then I let myself fall back into the abyss.





10


MONSTERS


MY MUSCLES BURNED like molten lava. A slow, agonizing pain spread throughout my body and left me fighting for breath. I gasped, greedily sucking in the cool air. The blue sky was a small speck far above me.

Vines and cobwebs wrapped neatly around my body, restraining and suspending me in midair. Every time I struggled to break free, the vines tightened around my body like a constrictor. Elvira’s broken body lay below me, a snarl across her dead lips. The twinges of power forcing their way through my skin were already fading.

On instinct, I lashed out at the vines, kicking and tearing. Elvira’s power fueled my tired, injured body, giving it the adrenaline I needed. But no matter how much I struggled, the vines held me tight, and I swayed, helplessly vulnerable in their grip.

Images of the battle on the mountain flashed behind my eyes. The memory of Panic’s dying shriek broke my heart into pieces. He’d been a good horse, and all it got him was a dagger in the eye. Rekke was gone too; someone who despite my best efforts had managed to worm her way to a place close to my heart, someone who could’ve become a friend if I’d let her. She shouldn’t have been on the Hunt in the first place, and now she was dead because of the crumpled body below me. Every cell in me ached to pummel it to a pulp until it was unrecognizable. It was as if the feeling of Elvira’s blood between my fingers would make up for the lives she’d cut short. The small satisfaction that her gambit to kill Rekke and secure her position had ended in her demise did nothing to quell the rage and sadness inside of me.

Once more, I twisted in the vines, lashing out with bound legs, and once more I failed to get free. The small speck of blue sky was now an indigo blanket. I closed my eyes, praying to whatever deity would listen that Soren got out all right and that the blood streaking his body was not his own.

The hair on the back of my neck rose as footsteps echoed through the dark caverns. I thrashed wildly. If I got a glimpse of what this place looked like, I might know what type of creature called it their home—and more important, if they wanted to eat me.

The high walls of the cavern glistened with crimson liquid too thin to be blood, dripping down onto moss the color of moonlight. Bones and feathers littered the floor, and among them sat a humanoid skeleton. I swallowed the fear threatening to rise. Escape was my goal and fear only got in the way. I brought one vine-covered arm up to my mouth and gnawed at the bitter-tasting plant.

The echoing footsteps stopped. “You won’t get out that way.” Someone giggled.

“Where are you?” The voice came from behind me, but there was only darkness.

“You should be more polite,” she said. “It’s not fun when everyone doesn’t get along.”