White Stag (Permafrost #1)(89)
We stood back-to-back, the sharpness of his bones pressing into my skin, as we fought off the ever-growing horde.
“I thought he only had seven men left!” I shouted and cringed as a goblin’s sword swiped at my side, tearing apart my tunic and leaving the skin beneath it warm and bloody. Before the man could do any worse, Seppo’s blade was in his chest, and the man’s body was flung into the distance.
“I thought so too!” Seppo shouted. I aimed another arrow over his head just as one of the creatures jumped down from a tree.
Deep in the forest, a shriek pierced the dawn. Following that was a large crash and the sounds of power twisting and rebelling. The shriek, though I’d never heard such a thing before, could only be Soren’s.
“I have to find him!” I eyed the remaining goblins. Dead bodies littered the ground, some full of puncture marks and deep gashes where Seppo had disemboweled them, some riddled with arrows from the shots I took. Blood was sticky underneath my feet, and the air was tinged with the scent of copper and iron; both burned my lungs as much as the smoke. There were still eyes everywhere, peering from the trees and the bushes, from the harsh starkness on the other side of the boundary. If I left Seppo, he’d have to fight them all.
We locked eyes. “I can do it,” he said. “I’ll hold them off. You need to find Soren and the stag.” The howling wind blew his voice away and stung like lashes on my face. Embers floated through the air and burned my skin. The pain could’ve been a pinprick for all I felt.
My heart beat wildly; I needed to get out of here, save Soren, save the stag. Dread churned inside me as I reached for the power in the air; Soren’s was gone. Worse, so was the stag’s.
Seppo twirled his staff, carving an escape path for me out of the fighting goblins. “Janneke,” he called, “be careful.” The sound of the wind turned into actual howling as three pairs of eyes appeared in the darkness. The wolves had come back to fight with us.
We shared once last glance of friendship, both with resolve reflecting deep in our eyes. Whatever happened tonight, Seppo would always be my ally, my friend. The goblins who hadn’t been fatally injured were regrouping, and the wolves took a defensive stance around Seppo, baring their teeth and snarling. Without another word, I shot westward past the wounded horde and down the border of the Permafrost.
Beneath my feet, the soil was pulsing with the power of the ancient land, the boundary between the worlds precariously hanging on a thread. Blood rushed in my ears as I expanded my senses to find Soren. He had to be on the boundary, that could be the only place Lydian would make him fight. That way the stag would be forced there too.
Still, the thrumming rhythm of the stag’s hooves evaded me; they’d been inside my head ever since the dream of the burnt land where he showed me the seeds that burned in my pocket even now. I tried to feel it, his regal, beautiful air, the ancient wisdom that pulsed from him like lifeblood. But there was nothing in the wind; just like in the dream, the creature was silent as it ran.
But the battle wasn’t, and I raced toward the sounds of breaking trees and animalistic shrieks, ignoring my burning, oxygen-starved muscles. I was all too aware of the beating my body had taken in the past few days and the fact that the fire was stealing what little energy remained.
When I saw them, I swear my heart stopped. Fear trickled down my spine like a stream. I froze, unable to do anything but watch. They barely looked like men. Their bodies were hunched over, their hands and feet stretched out like the paws of large animals, fangs glistening at their lips, and the sounds they uttered were anything but human. Spines protruded from their backs and their bones stuck out at gross angles, their hair tumbling down like waterfalls and dotted with blood.
A flash of green and gold caught my eye as the Lydian-creature saw me in the trees, but before he could attack, the Soren-creature lunged at him, his jaws snapping at his rival’s neck. All I could do was stand staring, paralyzed by fear. Every instinct told me to run and get away from these creatures as fast as possible. My body screamed as it took in the carnage and the creature that was Soren, rejecting it fiercely. He couldn’t be that hideous; he couldn’t be that cruel, with blood dripping from his nails and his teeth bared in a wicked snarl. But deep inside, I knew this was his truest form. I’d come to terms with what he was long ago. Whatever state he was in now, somehow, I had to believe he wouldn’t hurt me.
I forced my frozen muscles to run toward the fighting goblins, my eyes open for the stag as I did. Soren was trying to push Lydian out of the edge of the Permafrost, back into the human world, but Lydian swung at him and sent him soaring back into the trunk of a skeleton tree. With a sickening crack, the tree split open.
He raced forward to land another blow at the same time I crashed into him, sending him tumbling away from Soren’s still body.
Lydian hissed and the sound sent shivers down my spine. We grappled in the dirt until he was over me. I spat in his face and drove my knee into his crotch, but all he did was extend his claws and reach for my heart.
He never got a chance to pierce my flesh. Soren slammed into Lydian, and both of them rolled far away from where I was lying. I stood and backed up, body quivering. Whatever strength Lydian had before, it was tenfold now.
Soren’s eyes locked onto mine, his gaze wide with surprise. Even though every inch of him was monstrous, his eyes were the same shade of lilac. Lydian swiped at him, bringing his attention back to his enemy. Soren snarled and dove in, and they wrestled like cats on the ground.