Chapter 42 #4
My throat is clenched closed as I run towards the remaining jotunn, trying my own power again. I create another flurry of dagger-like shards, and they hit faster than before, but they don’t have the same impact as Ruben’s flames. The jotnar are too used to ice and snow.
‘You need to give me more, Rose,’ Ruben says, his tone pleading, resigned.
I shake my head, tears in my eyes. ‘You’ve already had too much—’
‘And I can take it. To save Ben, to save you … I can take it. Rosey, I need everything. Everything you can give me.’
I hesitate, because this? This is too fucking much, and I know it. And so does he.
‘NOW!’ Ruben roars at me, and I nod, tears falling, obscuring my vision as I pass far more power than is wise into Ruben.
Fen is swiping out wildly as Benny twists on the ground, narrowly escaping the stomp of a foot. But even if he can see where to move, having the energy to do so is another matter. He’s growing sluggish, exhausted – we all are.
This time, the fireball hits the creature square in its face, and it recoils with a roar.
‘That’s it!’ I yell at Ruben. ‘That’s fucking it! It’s slowing down.’
‘I don’t need to slow it down! I need to fucking stop it!’ Ruben’s eyes are blazing, his irises almost glowing with dancing flames, and the sight of it makes me sob.
I shake my head, my bottom lip trembling. ‘I can’t, Ru. Please don’t make me give you more. It’s a death sentence.’
‘If you don’t give me more, Benny dies. Please, Rose!’
The giant is closing in on Benny, and thanks to the flames to the face, he is pissed. I hastily build an ice shield around Benny, but my fear is messing with my control, and I already know it’s not going to be strong enough.
Ruben’s right. This Godsdamn giant is going to keep going until its dying breath, and it’s too close to Benny.
I scream as I do as Ruben asks, making another whiteout and then pushing its power into him.
‘Again!’ Ruben orders me.
The jotunn’s arm crashes into the earth, sending a spray of ice and stone outward.
One piece pierces my ice shield and catches Benny hard in the shoulder, spinning him sideways.
His sharp cry rips into the air, a direct hit to my heart.
I pale at the way he now clutches his shoulder.
Along with his twisted ankle, Benny is in a bad way, and he knows it, his eyes resigned to the death that is coming to him.
And Ruben can see it too.
‘Rose Kultavaris!’ Ruben snaps out. His hands are glowing, his magic radiating from his entire body now, and the heat of him melting the snow around him.
‘I have never asked anything of you. Not once. Not in all the time I have known you. We need to stop this thing now, before it kills Ben, so give me power. Now!’
He’s right, and if he thinks he can take it, who am I to tell him he can’t?
He’s survived everything that life has thrown at him. This is his kraken moment. The moment he needs me to believe in him totally.
The way he has believed in me time and time again.
So I don’t think. I just do.
What appears in front of me is a chandelier of the most epic proportions, each drop intricately carved and turning the entire world into a kaleidoscope of colours.
And the moment it’s complete, I draw all that magic back out and slam it into Ruben.
He lifts his head to the sky, screaming as huge flames form in his hands. Not flickering flames of orange and yellow, but bright blue and white.
His eyes glow and I can’t look away.
‘Ruben,’ Benny screams. ‘Stop! It’s too much! STOP!’
‘I will not stop,’ Ruben answers with odd calm, a soft smile on his face as he looks at Benny. ‘And I will never stop loving you.’
And then, with a look of pure determination, Ruben squeezes his hands close together, concentrating all the magic I gave him into a single pinpoint of pure destruction.
My pulse hammers against my ears with every heartbeat until a primal roar rips from Ruben’s throat and he sends his condensed ball of destruction straight at the jotunn.
It is as if the entire world slows. As if I’m seeing with Benny’s powers, able to watch every minute detail.
The flurries of snow, the darkening of the clouds above us, the giant as it takes the deadly strike, and him.
My Ruben. My best friend, whose faith in me has never wavered.
Whose love has never faltered, even when I didn’t deserve it.
Who has never asked me for a single thing. Until today.
His head twists slowly, eyes locking on mine, and a ghost of a smile lifts the corner of his lips, his soft brown irises lost beneath the flames that darken his gaze.
My heart surges, and grief rips through me, realising what’s happening. I cannot tear my eyes away from him – I owe him that much at least – and so I watch, even as my heart breaks.
‘Ruben!’ His name flies from my lips, but he’s turning from me now. Turning to face the love of his life. The lover he’s barely even had time to get to know properly.
His mouth opens, and his lips move, forming a name.
Benny.
And then he drops to the ground.