Chapter 22 #3
“Your guess is as good as mine. This way,” I said, feeling the icy breeze of the lake.
Moments later, we emptied out of the forest and onto the lake shore, my legs too weak to stay upright anymore.
I nearly took Sylvi down with me. I stared out over the lake, thankful that Varik and Torin were already halfway across the frozen surface toward the camp, two dark specks moving quickly over the lake.
But dread skidded over my back when I noticed Ravin and Astrid had stayed behind.
“Sylvi?” Ravin said, looking shocked, though relieved. “I tried telling him he was being an idiot.”
My gaze narrowed. “Don’t give her any more reasons to scold me.”
Astrid’s shoulders seemed to square further back, her spine rigid. “Captain. It’s good to see you.”
“Why haven’t you crossed?” I asked, breathless.
“This stubborn ass refused to go without you,” Astrid said.
A sharp crack splintered through the night, followed by the unmistakable groan of straining ice. Our gazes snapped to the center of the lake just in time to see Torin plunge through.
My heart lurched. Varik just kept running toward shore.
“You fucking coward,” Ravin shouted. “The bastard left him. He just left him… His own soldier...”
Torin flailed, trying to haul himself out, slipping over and over again, screaming for help.
Ravin turned to me. “Can you use your magic to help him?”
I crawled to the lake’s edge and placed my hands on the ice, trying to summon my magic, but I’d nearly burnt myself out fighting those wraiths. I shook my head, too ashamed to utter the words.
“His body is going to lock up from the cold. He’s going to drown if we don’t do something,” Ravin said, getting ready to chase after him.
Sylvi reached for his arm. “The ice is too thin,” she warned. “You’ll go under, too.”
The growls grew louder, closer.
Ravin stared out over the lake, his chest caving as we continued to watch the warrior scramble. Suddenly, Torin seemed to disappear from the surface, then his head popped up again, and the warrior screamed as if something was pulling him under.
“We can’t just leave him—” But Ravin’s words were cut off as the warrior got pulled under again, his screams garbled by the ice water.
He did not resurface.
We all just stared in stunned silence until Astrid’s gaze snapped to Sylvi’s. “What’s the plan, Cap?”
Dressed in soft leather armor, a blue cloak draped over her shoulders, hair twisted in a tight coronet of braids, and the blade I’d given her tightly gripped in her hand, I realized what a true idiot I’d been.
Trying to keep her locked up behind that ice wall…
What the Hel had I been thinking? Sylvi was a warrior, and despite my instincts, she didn’t need my protection. She needed my support.
She eyed me.
“You’re the captain,” I said. “Officially or not, this is your command.”
Sylvi scanned the forest’s edge, sniffing the air as if she too could smell the scent of the beasts hiding in the shadows. “We can’t go back into the forest,” she said, nodding toward Ravin’s thigh. “Not with that nasty wound and Jack’s depletion of power.”
“The ice is too dangerous to traverse,” I said. “I need time… a few minutes at least, to recoup some of my strength so I can reinforce it.”
The growls rose in pitch, and Sylvi shot her gaze into the trees again. “We don’t have minutes to wait for your magic, Jack. Those things are growing restless. Something is holding them from attacking, but they won’t stay in the shadows for much longer.”
“How do you know that?” Ravin asked.
Sylvi shrugged. “Because otherwise we’d already be dead.” Fixing her gaze on mine, she added, “We need to cross. Now.”
I nodded. “Tell us what you want us to do.”
“Ditch anything heavy—cloaks, packs, excess weapons. Stay ten feet apart. Crawl across on hands and knees to distribute weight. Same path. No deviation. Avoid spider-webbed ice…”
“What’s keeping the beasts from chasing after us?” Astrid asked, her eyes weary as she began stripping herself of all her weapons, blades I hadn’t seen concealed dropping at her feet. Ravin did the same.
“I’m going to hold them back while you three make it across.”
I grunted. “Fuck. That. I’m not crossing without you.”
Sylvi knelt at my side, her usual soft eyes hardening with the heart and courage of a Skadgardian warrior—my godsdamned beautiful warrior.
“Do we need to go over this again? I can handle myself. Look, by the time you get across, you’ll have regained some of your strength, and you can reinforce the lake.
And if you truly need to be my hero, when I run, shatter it behind me so the Nyrvendir can’t follow. ”
It was a solid plan, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.
“Go,” she ordered. “Ravin first. Then Astrid. Jack, you hold the rear. Now move.”
Heart in my throat, I nodded, but every muscle in my body revolted against me.
I shed all my blades, except for my father’s sword, which I kept strapped across my back and crawled ten feet behind Astrid until I made it to the gap where Torin had fallen, feeling like a complete coward, like an utter disappointment.
Especially when the tether chaining me to Sylvi kept tugging me back toward shore—toward her.
This was wrong, so fucking wrong. Náldrún curse me, but there was no way I would crawl away on hands and knees toward camp while Sylvi faced off against a pack of cursed hounds all on her own.
She could be pissed at me all she wanted, but I was not going to abandon her.
As I turned back around, a monstrous sound erupted from the forest, the ice beneath my hands rattling.
The twisted wolves stepped into the clearing, and horror nearly froze me solid.