Chapter 1 #2
“Yes, I did,” he interrupts, and glances pointedly between me and the darkness ahead.
“Yes, you did, what?”
He looks irritated, as if explaining himself is physically painful. “I did have to follow you.”
“Worried that everyone would be angry if you let me die?” I ask. He nods once, and it’s my turn to scoff. “Story of my life.”
He doesn’t answer, but raises a brow in question. I pretend not to notice, and he clearly doesn’t care enough to ask out loud, so at last we’re silent as we edge deeper into the cave, our footsteps muffled against the icy floor.
The passage is long and winding, but finally the light changes ahead, and I can see that it opens up into a wide cavern.
Fox sees the cavern at the same moment I do, and he stiffens ahead of me.
He reaches for one of his swords with one large hand while holding the other arm out to signal me to stay back.
“Wait!” I hiss. Instantly, the glowing orb in my hand winks out, and we’re plunged into semi-darkness. I barely notice, my fingers flying to my potion belt. “Let me go first.”
Fox spares me half a glance. “Stay there.”
“No!” I say again, louder than I intended. I lower my voice back to a whisper. “Put that sword away! You don’t need it.”
This obviously surprises him because he stops and looks back at me fully, eyes wide with incredulity. His gaze flicks to the small sword still strapped to my belt.
I huff an exasperated breath. “That’s just in case something goes wrong. I don’t want to kill anything if I don’t have to. Here—” I pull one of my potion vials out of my belt “—this will just stun the troll. If it’s even here at all, which I’m really hoping it’s not, see—”
Fox puts a hand up to stop me from talking, his expression somewhere between amusement and disgust. “Fucking witches,” he mutters again.
“I’m not a witch,” I say again. “‘Witch’ is a human word. Maybe you could say I’m a sorceress, but that’s usually referring to a witch with official training, which obviously I’ve never had, so—”
Fox shoots me a look so withering, the only possible meaning is: “Shut the fuck up.”
I close my mouth, affronted, but don’t talk again as he creeps forward to peer into the cavern. I tiptoe after him, still holding my breath.
If he tries to kill the troll while it’s sleeping or something, what am I going to do?
I can’t just let him slaughter an innocent creature.
Maybe I could stun both of them with my potion?
But then how would I explain that to Daemon and Alix when I get back to the estate?
“See, what happened was, your guard captain was trying to protect me, so I knocked him out. He’ll be fine… probably…in a few days…a week at most…”
No, that definitely won’t go over well with the new king and queen.
“Wait—” I whisper. “Maybe we should—”
Before I can finish speaking, Fox relaxes ahead of me and lowers his sword. “There’s nothing here.”
A spark of satisfaction shoots through me, and I resist the urge to whoop. “I thought so.” I grin. “I timed this perfectly. Good thing, too, because I never would have let you kill a troll unprovoked.”
He scoffs again, which is clearly his preferred method of communication. This time I take it to mean: “I’d like to see you try to stop me.”
I ignore him, stepping lightly around his large frame and into the cavern.
Weak sunlight spills through a jagged hole in the ceiling, illuminating an enormous circular chamber where the skeletons of hundreds of animals lie scattered around what can only be a troll’s nest.
I dart toward the crude bed, lined with straw and matted fur, my boots crunching over more small animal skeletons.
I dig excitedly in my belt for an empty potion vial.
There’s plenty of hair to collect, silver and shimmering among the filthy straw, and I waste no time plucking the shining hairs from the nest and stuffing them into the bottle.
“Hurry,” Fox mutters darkly.
“Calm down,” I hiss. “This will only take another minute. Trolls are nocturnal. Anyway, if it’s not here now, it probably won’t be back until dawn. We’ll be fine.”
I’m not expecting him to answer me, so I’m slightly surprised when he asks: “What were you going to do if it were here?”
I uncork another vial with my teeth, and my answer comes out muffled around the cork in my mouth. “I guess I would have had to fight my way out.”
He snorts a derisive, disbelieving laugh. “Do you even know how to use that sword?”
“Not exactly, but how hard can it be? It’s a giant knife.”
The captain doesn’t say anything—which isn’t unusual—but the silence is so thick I glance back to gauge his expression. He’s staring at me with a mixture of horror and incredulity.
“I’d rather use a potion than a sword anyway,” I rush to explain, gesturing toward the vials on my belt. “These are a strong paralytic. Why would I go out of my way to kill an innocent creature when I could just as easily stun it?”
“You think frost trolls are innocent?”
“I think they are as long as they’re minding their own business and not hurting anyone.”
Fox’s dark blonde eyebrows pull low, and he makes a frustrated sound before turning back toward the tunnel and leaning against the cavern wall to wait for me.
It only takes me another minute to finish up. Then, shoving the cork into my final vial, I straighten up and shake dirt and straw from my long skirt. I feel Fox’s eyes on me as I walk back to the tunnel entrance.
Whatever. I don’t really care if Fox is annoyed with me.
He’s the one who barged his way in on my plans.
He didn’t have to come. Still, we’ve only been walking back down the winding cave passageway for a few minutes before I can’t take the tense silence any longer.
“Stop glaring at me. I can practically hear your mind spinning.”
“You were really planning to waltz in here in your pretty little dress, with barely any weapons, and try to negotiate with an ‘innocent’ monster,” Fox blurts out in a single, agitated breath.
I blink, surprised by his outburst. “I think that’s the longest sentence I’ve ever heard you speak.
I don’t know whether I should be flattered that you’re bothering to talk to me or offended that you clearly think I’m an idiotic child.
We hardly know each other. I don’t remember asking for your help with this, yet here you are, barging in on my plans and lecturing me on how to do it better. ”
His eyes narrow and he turns his face forward, refusing to look at me as we walk. “I think you’re na?ve, not an idiot,” he says finally. Then, almost like an afterthought, adds: “I definitely don’t think you’re a fucking child.”
“Good.” I sniff. “Because I’m not. I didn’t need your help. I’d obviously prefer not to kill anything unless I have to, but I know that trolls are too violent and animalistic to be reasoned with. I might as well try to put a werewolf on a leash and make it beg me for treats.”
Fox’s nostrils flare. He glances back at me again, and something dark flashes in his pale eyes. “Tried that before, have you?”
“Maybe.” I grin. “You really shouldn’t underestimate me.”
He scoffs again, but this time it sounds less judgmental and more amused.
At that moment, a shadow falls over us, plunging the passage into inky darkness. My gaze snaps toward the cave entrance, and I suck in a startled gasp, eyes transfixed on the enormous creature suddenly blocking our way out.
The frost troll is even more enormous than it looked in my books; nine—maybe ten—feet of blue-white muscle and matted silver hair, its breath freezing in clouds around yellowed tusks the length of my entire arm.
It seems as if the troll is just as surprised to see us as we are to see it, and its beady black eyes widen for a moment, before it opens its wide mouth and a deafening roar shatters the silence, vibrating the icicles until they crash to the ground all around us.
“Fuck,” Fox growls under his breath.
“What is it doing back so soon?” I exclaim, my eyes going very wide.
Unsurprisingly, Fox ignores my question. In the blink of an eye, he reaches out one enormous hand and shoves my entire body roughly behind him, before drawing the largest of his swords in a single fluid motion.
“Wait!” I hiss, reaching into my belt for my stunning potion. “Don’t kill it. Just let me—”
I don’t get a chance to finish my thought.
The troll’s face contorts in animalistic rage, and it charges down the cave passageway, icy droplets exploding from the floor and walls with every thundering step.
In less than half a second, it reaches us and roars again as it raises its huge fist and swings toward Fox.
Fox ducks, letting the troll’s fist whistle past the top of his head.
In the same fluid motion, he swings his large sword in a well-practiced arc, and cleaves through sinew and bone, severing the troll’s massive forearm.
Dark blood sprays across the ice as the dismembered limb thuds against the cave floor.
The troll’s howl reverberates off the icy walls as it lurches forward, its severed stump splattering more viscous blood across the ice.
Fox pivots on his heel, his sword catching blue light along its edge.
The blade whistles through the air, then meets flesh with a wet thud.
The creature’s eyes bulge. Its massive body shudders once, twice, then crumples to the ground, its final breath escaping in a cloud of steam that dissipates against the cold stone.
I stare, wide-eyed and open-mouthed down at the body of the troll. The entire fight took less than ten seconds.
Still gaping, I look up at Fox, who is barely out of breath. His pale-blonde hair has come slightly undone from its knot and is skimming his sharp jaw, but aside from that he looks completely unbothered as he wipes the blood from his sword on his thigh and puts it back in its sheath.
I don’t know why I’m so surprised. I knew Fox was a soldier, yet I honestly believed he was named head of the Vernalli army mainly because of his close friendship with the new king.
Clearly, I was wrong.
Like he can feel my eyes, Fox glances up to meet my gaze. He cocks his head in something between a question and a challenge.
I shake my head to clear it and stand up straighter. “Thank you. But that really wasn’t needed, I could have stunned it.”
He laughs under his breath. “That’s how witches die, you know.”
“What is?”
“You rely too much on magic.” He smirks. “It’s hard to do magic without any arms.”
A cold chill travels down my spine. “Killed a lot of witches, have you?”
He raises one eyebrow and doesn’t answer. I take that to mean: “What do you think?”
I nod once, humbled. “Alright, I got it,” I laugh lightly. “I need to practice more with my sword so next time I see a troll charging at me I don’t waste time trying to be diplomatic. No more trying to put werewolves on leashes, so to speak.”
Fox’s pale eyes darken. “If you ever actually see a wolf, don’t even bother with the sword.”
I frown. “If I can’t tame it and I can’t fight it, what else is there?”
“You could run.”