Chapter 42 #3
‘Do not burn yourself out,’ Benny warns. ‘Either of you.’
‘Don’t worry. We can do this all day,’ Ruben says, glancing back at Benny. ‘Just out of interest,’ he adds as he sends another fireball into the first jotunn, ‘you find this hot, right?’
‘You have no fucking idea.’ Benny groans theatrically, but I can see the worry in his eyes.
Fen, I say through the bond, I think we’re going to need your help on this one. Benny’s struggling. It’s true, I realise, as I send another whirl of magic into Ruben. Yes, Benny can see when the strikes are going to come, but he still has to have the energy and speed to move out of the way in time.
As you command, Little Raven, Fen says. It’s trachea-ripping time!
Without waiting a beat, he leaps through the air towards the jotunn, teeth gnashing, his front paws landing on the beast’s calves. Without so much as a pause, he springs up again, this time digging his teeth deep into the jotunn’s ankle.
The monster’s scream curdles, and he swipes low at Fen, providing the perfect opportunity for Benny and his ice sword. He lunges at it, slicing through the arm. Blood erupts, thick and red.
‘These ice swords work surprisingly well,’ he pants. ‘You could open an ice-sword shop. Weaponry for the discerning palate.’
‘How about you keep your mind on staying alive and not on talking!’ Ruben yells back. ‘Rosey, I need more!’
‘Sure.’ I create another sword and then pull the magic in and pass him another hit.
‘This fucker is going down,’ Ruben growls with determination, creating the biggest ball of flames I have ever seen between his palms.
Fen and I tag-team the jotunn with Benny, all three of us taking turns striking at its legs, ankles, anything we can reach. While my powers feel fine, my arms are burning, and I can only imagine how Benny is feeling.
We need to end this and soon, or we’re all finished.
‘Watch out!’ Ruben calls. ‘It’s gonna come down! Move!’ he yells.
I look up.
The jotunn he has been hurling fire at is teetering on its feet.
Any second now, it’s going to fall.
Fall right on me.
Fuck!
For a heartbeat, my body refuses to move, rooted as the shadow of it looms large, too fast, too close—
Then instinct snaps back in, and I bolt.
I pound the ground, but my feet are sinking into the powdery snow and my movements are painstakingly slow. Deathly slow.
I’ve got you, Little Raven! Fen’s voice tears through my head as something slams into me from the side.
The world lurches.
Snow, sky, white, dark – everything spins as he barrels into me mid-air, ripping me out of the jotunn’s path. We hit the ground hard, the breath punching from my lungs as we skid across the snow.
A heartbeat later, the ground booms behind us.
A murmur of disgruntlement filters through my wolf.
Didn’t someone have to save you like this in your first trial, Little Raven? he says.
‘Well, it wasn’t exactly the same,’ I mutter aloud, ‘but maybe.’
‘Princess!’ Stefan calls. ‘I need help!’
My eyes lift as I push myself up, only for my stomach to drop away from me entirely.
Now I realise why Stefan only offered that single spear from his fallen position on the other side of the ravine. It’s because he’s been battling a jotunn of his own. One probably attracted by the wails of its fellow giants.
‘Fuck!’ I would say I don’t know how we missed it, but when you’re fighting for your life, it’s pretty hard to take in your surroundings.
Fear lurches through me. If the cries attracted one, then there’s a chance they’ll attract others…
Fen, any news on Elska and Kyor? I ask, casting my glance upwards. There’s no hint of green in the sky, but grey clouds are gathering. That has to be a good sign, right?
I can feel them growing closer, Fen confirms, and I can feel his relief to have lupine backup coming.
Of course I’m relieved, he says. If I were to dine on the epiglottis of a beast without my mate present to share the most tender parts, she would likely be less than pleased with me.
The knowledge that help is on its way isn’t the greatest comfort. We were walking for hours to get here. Even riding on Elska at full pelt, the time it will take Kyor to reach us is more than enough for the jotnar to bring us to our knees. Especially if more are coming down off the mountains.
‘I’ll keep with this big one,’ Ruben yells. ‘Rose, you help Stefan. Fen’s with Ben, right?’
I can spare one split-second glance, but it’s all I need. Fen is there, his teeth currently sunk deep into the jotunn’s thigh while Benny attempts to climb its side. Both are further away from that prized trachea than I’d like, but they’ve got a system going.
‘I’m struggling here, Princess!’ Stefan yells again.
Little Raven—
Hold on, I fire back. Stefan’s words have caused a bolt of fear to ripple through me, but it’s almost instantly transformed into something else. Power.
With a sharp breath in, I raise my hands and fire out a thousand shots of ice, which causes the monster to screech in pain.
‘Don’t burn yourself out!’ Benny shouts to me.
Little Raven!
‘I’m not!’ I yell back at Benny and at Fen, assuming my wolf was about to chastise me for the same thing.
Because I’m not burning myself out. I’ve felt what it’s like to push my magic to the brink before, when I saved Fen from the river.
The energy drained from every fibre of my body then.
This isn’t what this is like at all. No, this is something entirely different.
This is being at one with my magic. My Issen magic, pure and invigorating.
And I have so much more than I should, gifted from Gods who I don’t know whether to thank or scream at.
In a flurry of inspiration, I create a snowstorm that entirely encircles Stefan’s jotunn. It’s not quite what Magnus did, not removing light itself, but I hope it has a similar effect.
‘Rosey!’ Ruben shouts. ‘More!’
I hesitate.
I’m not burning out because Etta and Oel have created a well within me that I genuinely fear may never quite drain dry. But Ruben? He’s literally not designed to hold this much magic. But it’s my magic, not his. Does that mean he won’t burn out?
‘ROSEY!’ Ruben screams, and as I turn to face him, I see it, in his face. The knowledge that he’s risking it all. That it might not be okay. But his jaw is set, determined.
‘MORE!’ he screams at me all the same, the jotunn pressing down on him.
At least with the fire, he stands a chance.
I sweep the magic in from the flurry surrounding my jotunn and pour it into Ruben, who fires it straight at the second giant.
‘I think it’s gonna retreat,’ Ruben yells as it stumbles back.
‘This one too!’ Stefan calls back.
Two down, two retreating.
Relief floods through me, though it’s short-lived as I turn to Benny and Fen, a gasp leaving my lungs.
The jotunn that Benny was battling moments ago is on the ground, throat bitten out, wounds all across its body, but just behind it, another one is approaching.
I want to cry. How many of these fuckers are there? And will the others continue to retreat when they see their backup coming?
Fen lunges for the new jotunn, but he’s starting to slow, and the giant is fresh to the fight. It swats Fen aside like he’s a fly, and I scream as he careens through the air before hitting a drift of snow. I feel his pain as the air is knocked from his lungs.
‘FEN!’
I’m okay, he says, but pain colours his voice, and he’s slow to get back to his feet. Benny! he barks at me.
I whirl around, only to see that the new giant’s eyes are solely on Benny, who’s dragging himself across the ground, his foot twisted at an unnatural angle.
I pull up more from my well and try to remember Stefan’s training on the ice shield. I can do it. I can do anything. I have to, for Benny.
The feeling of icy cold creeps up my arms and I thrust my magic out to him. But I’m too hurried, too scared. The shield I’ve wrought is weak – I can see the imperfections even from back here – but it’s something, and for now, it is holding.
Looking back up, I cry out in despair as the giant continues his march on Benny.
Panicked, I send shards of ice from my hands that seem to stutter mid-flight, falling short of the giant.
Godsdamn it, I’m just not close enough.
But Ruben is.
Benny?
Or Ruben?
Benny is a future duke, the spearhead of a rebellion that might actually give me a future with Kyor, and a friend. A damned good friend.
But Ruben is my dearest friend – my best friend – and the kindest soul I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. Of loving.
‘ROSEY!’ Ruben yells, and I choose.
I sob as I wrap a snowstorm around the unrelenting beast before drawing it all back in and piling the power into Ruben.
He hurls it back out without a moment’s breath, but the jotunn that’s bearing down on Benny is bigger than any of the others. The fire makes it flinch. But that’s it. A fucking flinch.
It feels as if my heart is no longer beating as Fen grabs at Benny’s furs, trying to drag him out of the path of the encroaching beast.