18. Bryn #2
I did my best to not let my eyebrows drift up my forehead. At least he had two bodyguards with boulder-like builds.
“Go…” Henrik winced but continued. “Finish this.”
I didn’t like it. Not one bit. But, with a nod, I rose to my feet and focused on the mound of treasure in the middle of the room. The glass chest where I’d found the necklace was perched atop the pile but looked like it had been cracked.
A yelp of pain sounded from the other side of the room.
This couldn’t wait.
I wouldn’t let anyone else get hurt because of my actions.
Sprinting, I bolted across the room and climbed the shimmering pile. Hrim be damned. Gold and silver gave way beneath my feet, slowing my ascent, but I kept moving. Kept pushing. As I finally crested the top, I shoved my hand into my pouch and pulled out the necklace.
“Sailors, let him go!” I swung the glowing pendant above my head and rays of light bounced off the shiny surfaces in the space, saturating everything in a blue hue. “Over here!”
Hrim’s glare locked on the necklace like a hawk focusing on its prey.
Got him.
I thrust the necklace higher into the air. “Here!”
My chest rose and fell sharply. This was going to get me killed. But it would be fine. I would be fine. The ancestors would welcome me home with a scolding, but at least I’d save these men and women and Henrik. Not to mention stop any others being attacked by the giant.
Hrim glared at the sailors sprinting away then slowly turned to face me. His eyes narrowed on the necklace as his head tilted to one side, studying me and the glowing pendant dangling from my hand.
My heart thrashed in my chest. It knew, as well as I did, that the end was merely a few icy paces away.
One of those icicle fingers was coming for me.
Going to spear me right through. I swallowed hard and shook away the imagery.
It would do me no good. I should dwell on the pain when it finally arrived.
“I took it. It was me!”
The frost giant leaned down onto his hands and knees, then crawled across the massive cave. Ground shaking with each movement, shards of ice flew from him on impact. Stomp after bone-chilling stomp.
Get it over with.
Get it over with.
Get it over with.
“Come on! Take it back!” I shoved it higher, and the cool pendant tapped against my bloodstained forearm. Henrik’s blood or mine, I couldn’t be sure. Didn’t matter anyway. As long as everyone else survived.
Hrim slunk closer, moving more like a serpentine creature than the behemoth he was.
Nobody else moved.
Silence rippled through the cave like an omen.
My omen.
My death.
Prowling toward me.
Hrim’s approach slowed to a stop, leaving him close enough to be within sword range. His cool breaths skittered across my heated skin and tugged at my braid.
“Take it!” I thrust the pendant toward him.
Those glacial eyes studied the necklace, widening with an emotion I couldn’t quite place. Was that a softening? Feelings? Sadness? Shite… I’d… I’d…
Oh, how hadn’t I realized it sooner?
My throat tightened making it hard to swallow, let alone breathe.
How cruel of me. I’d done exactly what had been done to me.
Stolen something precious from this being that didn’t deserve it, all with the aim of solving my own problems that could have been fixed if I’d just let someone else help me.
“I’m sorry!” My yell echoed around the gigantic cavern. “I’m so very sorry.”
Hrim cocked his head, those cold eyes calculating and assessing me. My body trembled. He reached out slowly, and I closed my eyes, shoulders hunched, bracing for impact. The coldest ice I’d ever felt brushed against my fingers and tugged at the chain. I released my grip and opened my eyes.
Pulling the necklace close, Hrim stared at the pendant like a lost love. Something within me splintered into a hundred pieces and shattered. I’d done that. I’d caused the same kind of pain that others had caused me.
A single tear streaked across his face.
That alone brought me to my knees. “I’m so sorry.”
My voice was the only sound I could hear aside from my thundering pulse.
Everything else was still. Quiet. Waiting to see what the giant would do.
Hrim took his free hand and waved it in front of the left side of his chest. Frost shrank back across his sternum, revealing a cavity where one’s heart might lie.
My eyes widened, but I didn’t dare move. Couldn’t if I’d wanted to. Fear, awe, and curiosity adhered me where I knelt.
With deft and careful movements, Hrim placed the stone pendant within the hole in his chest and sealed it up with another layer of thick frost. His eyes shuttered and something akin to peace flitted across those icy features.
When he opened them once more, a green and pink glow shone from them, beaming across the space.
Lights that reminded me of the aurora borealis skittered across the cave walls, dancing to and fro in an elegant, green-colored display.
Figures appeared in the dips and hollows, pictures moving—
A gasp escaped me. There had been another snow giant.
Together they wandered along the isle’s cliffs, threw snowballs at each other, and laughed together.
Another scene appeared: the two exchanging gifts here in the cave.
He gave the other giant a small crown with sparkling emeralds and—what appeared to be the she-giant—donned it with glee and nuzzled against his neck.
Those shattered pieces of my heart melted away into nothing.
He’d… He’d been in love.
The next moving picture showed them sat on the black sand beach we’d walked across. A hug. A gentle touch. A teasing smile.
They reminded me of the moments I shared with Henrik. The flirty banter, the knowing smirks, the joy.
My body ached, and it felt like someone had punched me in the gut during a bar brawl. I’d done to him exactly what they—Sander and Marven—had done to me. Taken something so precious. So valuable. “I’m so sorry.”
Hrim pressed a talon to the wall where the she-giant smiled back as if laughing at something silly that had been said.
He’d loved and lost too. I knew that look.
Knew that pain from the loss of my parents.
Felt it deep within my bones and soul. That tempered sadness that never truly vanishes, but you learn to live with.
A dull ache that rekindles with every little reminder.
How very cruel of me.
Hrim stalked closer, metal and gems clinking against his icy footfalls, and I let the grief and shame settle over me as fate finally caught up with my actions.
“Nooooooooo!” A male voice yelled, but my focus was on the monster looming above me.
Hrim outstretched his long talons, and I curled into a ball ready for my own demise.
A sharpness singed through the back of my cloak, then my jacket and shirt, before it finally reached my skin.
My back was so cold it felt like it was being branded with a metal iron.
Hrim raked his talon in long lines up and down my back.
My body trembled violently, searing pain carving through my flesh and peeling me open. I let out a scream.
This was it.
This was how I died.
At the hand of an ancient and mythological creature on a pile of treasure.
“Mercy,” I pleaded on a whimper, knowing full well I didn’t deserve it. “Please.”
Whether the giant heard me or not, I couldn’t tell, but the fiery pain abated and clanking noises sounded from nearby as if the creature was retreating.
He probably thought I was dead. Certainly felt like I was on the precipice of meeting the ancestors.
I peered to my right—dark spots blurring my vision—and found Hrim lumbering back to the top of his golden mound.
Like a cat, he settled on his pile of treasures and curled in on himself, clutching his hands to his heart where the necklace now resided.
The lights in the cave sputtered out, leaving us all in a wealth of darkness and me to succumb to my injuries.