14. Flames of Misery
Flames of Misery
Larissa
L arissa lunged forward in the darkness.
On her left she could feel the heat of the flames making its way in through the wood.
The barn was lined with five stalls on each side.
Some were empty, but from some she could hear the grunts and squeals of terrified animals.
It was impossible to see anything between the dark and the increasing smoke, but Larissa knew that the trapdoor was in the last stall on the right.
She stumbled forward, pain shooting up the leg she’d landed on wrong when the creature had thrown her.
She cried out, tripping over something that darted across her path.
The chickens were trying to escape. Realizing the smoke was less intense on the ground, Larissa stayed low, crawling the length of the barn through the dirt and hay.
All around her, the wooden beams groaned and popped.
Every inch of her skin was drenched in sweat.
She was almost there.
The door was already thrown open. Through the haze, Larissa could see the hay that had been swept aside, revealing the uncovered trap door. Etched in the hidden wood was the Algiz rune of safety, its three prongs pointing toward the metal handle. Pappa’s handiwork.
“Halla!” she shouted.
The rising roar of animals and flames drowned her voice. Larissa pounded on the door twice, their typical code for all clear, before yanking it open.
Halla’s smoke-and-tear-stained face greeted her. Blonde hair stuck out at wrong angles. Her bright green eyes were hidden by the shadow of the hole. A long scratch graced her forearm, but Larissa’s eyes were captured by the gun pointed at her face.
“Get away from me, draugr ,” Halla hissed.
“Halla, it’s me.” Larissa pulled her eyes from the barrel. Without waiting for Halla to lower the weapon, Larissa pushed past it and slipped into the hole next to her sister, clinging to her. “It’s Lara. Bebe , it’s me.”
The endearment slipped out from relief. Halla resisted for a moment, her body stiff and unresponsive, then collapsed into Larissa’s arms. The gun thumped to the dirt floor, and Halla sobbed into her sister’s chest, racked with convulsive shaking.
“They’re all dead, aren’t they?” Halla’s voice broke, her sobs transforming into deep-chested coughs as smoke settled into their hole. Sorrow clawed up Larissa’s throat, but she could not allow herself to give in.
“We have to go, Halla. We have to go right now.” Larissa squeezed her sister, reaching for the gun on the ground. Pappa always kept it concealed behind a false panel in the stall door. Halla must have grabbed it when she hid. What had she seen before she’d found safety?
The pang of grief running through Larissa was swiftly numbed by the moaning of cracking wood.
Each breath grew more painful as smoke billowed into their hiding spot.
She checked that the weapon was indeed loaded before tucking it into her waistband.
She’d never used a gun before, but somehow she knew what to look for.
“The smoke is thinner closer to the ground,” she told Halla. “We’re going to crawl. Grab my ankle so you don’t lose me.”
Larissa lifted herself from the hole and immediately gagged on the mouthfuls of smoke.
Sweat fell into her eyes. She raised the collar of her soaked shirt to cover the bottom half of her face.
She helped Halla out of the hole, doing the same with her shirt.
Their beloved barn had become a nightmare of fire and smoke.
Although the flames burned, the smoke made it unbelievably dark.
If she had not walked this path a hundred times before, Larissa couldn’t have found their way out.
They crawled, Larissa in front with Halla’s hand on her heel.
Minutes passed; still Larissa could not make out the door.
The symphony of animals crying out rose around her, but Larissa could not turn aside.
She couldn’t risk Halla’s life for a few chickens.
The heat clung to their skin, burning them. Larissa groaned against the pain, forcing herself to continue. Ahead, she could see the hazy outline of the door.
A tug at her ankle dashed Larissa’s relief. Halla pointed to the closest stall door where the family pig squealed frantically as it bashed itself against the wood. Larissa shook her head. There was no time. Above them, the roof wailed. They needed to get out. Now.
Halla let go of Larissa, crawling toward the stall door.
The cloth at Larissa’s elbows tore as she chased her sister, causing her skin to scrape against the dirt floor.
The metal handle on the door had grown hot from the flames, so Halla covered her hands with her long sleeves as she struggled to unlatch the door.
It sprang open at last, and the large pig fled through the smoke as a loud crack reverberated through the barn.
Time had run out.
Larissa rose to a crouch, her eyes stinging from the smoke, and squinted in the direction the pig had gone. She snatched Halla’s wrist, yanking her to her feet. The walls of the barn shuddered in protest against the flames. They wouldn’t last much longer.
There! Larissa ran to the doorway, pulling Halla through the opening and into the cooler night air, not stopping until they collapsed in the dirt several yards away.
On hands and knees, they choked on the smoke in their lungs, peeling their shirts from their faces and heaving ash-filled globs of spit onto the ground.
Halla stopped first, rolling over onto her back and closing her eyes against the flames.
Larissa watched the flames consume the barn, the roof giving one last moan before snapping and collapsing on itself.
Her blood raced as she checked for Halla’s pulse to find it steady. But just above her wrists, Halla’s hands were spotted in angry blisters.
“What were you thinking, going back?” Larissa asked. “Look at your hands!”
Halla sat up, favoring her right side and holding her hands out from her as though air itself hurt them.
Her bottom lip trembled and, immediately, Larissa regretted her tone.
She pulled Halla into her arms, cradling her head.
A sob grew at the back of her throat. Larissa wished the tears would fall to soothe her stinging eyes.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You scared me. I thought I was going to lose you too. I’m so sorry, Halla; I love you.”
Halla hiccuped, rising from her sister’s lap. Tears flooded her red-rimmed eyes. “Why did you send me home? Why didn’t you come with me?”
“ Bebe , that wasn’t—” Larissa protested, her heart screaming out that Anara had been the one to send Halla home, but her words were cut off by the screech shattering the night.
Both girls covered their ears, their heads whipping in the direction of the sound. Darien was backing away from the monster that stretched its wings out as it screamed again in triumph.
Halla whimpered. “ Draugr .”
But Larissa’s eyes were focused on Darien. His name slipped through her lips as she cried out in warning. The draugr leapt toward him—
—and a wolf met it in midair, tackling it to the ground.
They rolled across the trampled field, each howling in pain and snarling in anger.
They leapt at each other, animalistic in their fury, claws and fangs extended.
The wolf latched onto its neck with her teeth, drawing dark purplish blood.
The draugr ’s barbed tail stabbed into the wolf’s hind leg, and the wolf released her bite, howling as she collapsed.
“Anara!” Darien shouted.
Larissa’s eyes widened. The wolf was Anara?
Darien ran through the fields, then reached for something on the ground.
He lifted the sword in his hand, charging forward, but had to dodge as the draugr tossed wolf-Anara’s body.
She skidded next to Darien, one of her paws sticking out at an awkward angle.
Screeching, the draugr pumped its powerful wings and ascended into the smoke and clouds.
Pulling Halla to her feet, Larissa rose from her hiding place. They ran toward Darien, who was kneeling next to an unconscious Anara. The shapeshifter had reverted back to her human form. Halla fell by Anara’s side, stunned recognition fluttering across her face.
“Anara?” Halla asked.
“You know her?” Darien asked, surprised.
“Just met,” Larissa replied, her eyes searching the clouds. “That thing will be back. Can you carry her?”
“Don’t even think about it, Darien Torstenson,” Anara muttered. She opened her eyes and, with great effort, pushed herself up onto her elbows. “I’m fine.”
But Darien’s arms were already under Anara, lifting her to his chest despite her protests.
A flash of darkness broke the dull clouds.
“Incoming!” Larissa shouted.
Plummeting from the sky, the draugr landed in front of their group.
The force of the impact sent them all to their knees.
The smell of death clung to the creature’s scales.
Swallowing the bile rising in her throat, Larissa reached around her waistband to grab the gun.
Two hands on the grip, arms straight, just like she’d been taught, although she could not remember by whom.
She aimed for its chest, but the gun was heavier than she expected. She flinched as she pulled the trigger, and the gun kicked back in her hands before falling from her grip.
The draugr screeched as a bullet tore through the membrane of its wing.
One of its claws swiped out, reaching for Larissa’s leg.
In the second before contact, Larissa noticed a shift of color in the bends of its wrists.
In between the armored scales were lighter patches of dark gray.
Anara had drawn blood from a similar patch on the draugr ’s neck.
No sooner had this revelation occurred to her than Larissa was jerked upside down by the creature, hoisted by her ankle. She screamed as talons dug into her skin. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Darien advance on the creature with a sword in his hand.