Chapter 38 #2
“Everyone else gets to touch you,” Darcke growled, jealousy making his face even harsher than usual.
His hands moved up my arm to weave into my hair.
“Everyone else gets to stare at you when the sun falls over this hair, making it seem like it’s bleeding down your back.
” He lifted a strand of crimson. “And now? Covered in ice and snow? You look like the queen of my own personal Hel, and it’s like I’m living a slow death, knowing I have no right to make you mine. I hate it.”
Tension rolled off him in waves, and there was a fight in my chest that was mirrored in his eyes. One we were swiftly losing. My hand moved on its own, sliding up his arm and over his shoulder.
I shouldn’t. I really fucking shouldn’t.
But the darkness wrapped so safely around us, the wind howling so loud no one would hear. We were in our own world here, and perhaps it was one where we could break the rules. Just for a moment. Just once.
When I reached his neck, I only hesitated for a second.
Darcke groaned as my fingers dragged through his soft strands. Then he leaned down, setting his mouth an inch from my own.
Everything within me was set alight at his nearness.
I didn’t need a fire anymore, because I was becoming our own pyre.
I fisted a handful of his hair and waited for a storm worse than the one outside to unleash. His breathing was deep, heavy, his chest rocking against mine as his arm slid around my back, pressing me against him.
“Guys! There’s something out there!” Kilia called.
When I tried to retreat, Darcke stepped with me.
“Maybe they’ll get eaten by the ghosts of your forefathers,” he whispered as his hand traced up my back to cup my neck, sending flames into my core. “And they won’t find us here.”
“Darcke,” I pleaded. For his mouth or for him to stop, I wasn’t sure.
“I know.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “That doesn’t sound like our kind of luck.”
My laughter echoed around the space, hollow as it was. “You’re right.”
“Seriously!” Ottoh called. “You need to see this.”
Darcke finally released me. “They’re the lucky ones.”
“How so?” I asked.
“Because if I didn’t hold out hope that I’ll get to kiss you soon, I would have killed them all already. But I have a feeling it’ll take you a few extra days to decide to give up everything for me if I do it, so I will hold off for now.”
I shook my head as I spun to return to the cave. “How honorable of you.”
Darcke’s breath danced over my neck. “I wouldn’t call what I have in mind honorable.”
All right then. I cleared my throat, feeling all kinds of hot that had no place in this world full of ice. We came up behind the others as they huddled by the opening, staring out into the white storm.
Something muted thudded through the air, like an echo of ancient drums or—
“Footsteps,” Darcke said. “Are those…”
“Hrimthursar,” Kilia confirmed grimly.
I was too short to see over the men standing before me, and I had to slap a hand over my mouth not to yelp when Darcke lifted me so that I could see over their heads.
My stomach whirled as I took in the frozen giants—twice the height of the man behind me, their hair made of ice and skin of packed snow.
The ice picks in their hands glittered like the ground beneath them.
“They caused the storm,” Ilse said.
A horn made me jerk, and Darcke held me closer as the tallest hrimthurs turned his neck, the ice it was made up of groaning from the pressure. White wind was sucked into his nose, and his glittering white eyes flickered with snow.
“Can he smell us?” Vero whined. “We don’t even have any weapons yet.”
As the line of hrimthursar came to a stop, Darcke backed up a step. “Looks like it.”
The frozen men spun toward us as one, and the ice hanging outside the cave started trembling.
“Let’s go,” I whisper-shouted. “Hopefully there is another way out.”
No one asked what would happen if there wasn’t.
Darcke shoved me behind him as he took the lead. “Stay close,” he ordered when I turned to make sure everyone else was coming.
I didn’t bother fighting him as he locked his hand in mine, only took Ilse’s as she stumbled after me, nodding for her to do the same to Kilia coming fourth.
We passed the spot where I’d nearly lost my mind for the umpteenth time when it came to Darcke.
The farther in we walked, the more the passage began to taper, the stone pressing inward until the air became as thin as Darcke’s patience.
With every step it felt like the hill was pushing harder on my chest, reducing my breath to a frantic rhythm.
I tried counting inhalations, but after two hundred and something, I stopped.
“There’s light ahead,” Darcke said after what felt like an eternity but might only have been an hour.
The pounding in my head, the pulse that had kept me warm, didn’t steady when the light turned out to be a fork, each one with its own inviting glow.
The stalactites hung so low here everyone but Ilse and me had to cower, and Darcke was nearly decapitated on an especially sharp one as he waved the rest of us forward, into the circular area that had opened up before the two paths.
“We need to split up,” he said.
“That sounds like a bad idea,” Ottoh growled. “Who knows what’s down those paths?”
“Those hrimthursar could be waiting in one,” Vero added.
“Or both,” Darcke said. “Better only a few of us die in that case.”
“Way to inspire confidence,” Kilia grumbled as he pulled Ilse to his side. “You’re with me,” he added when the short girl glared at him. “I don’t care what you have to say.”
“And you’re with me.” Darcke held on to me as if I would run away if he didn’t. “We’ll take this one.” He nodded down the right passage.
“Why?” Vero demanded.
“Because Valhalla is at the end of it,” Darcke snarked. “I don’t know! But I don’t plan on dying here by taking too long to decide.”
As Ottoh took a step toward my second, I slammed an arm into Darcke’s chest. “Stop fighting. If we’re splitting up, everyone should be allowed to decide which one they want to take.”
“Fine.” Kilia started dragging Ilse down the left path. “Better we split up if you both die, right?”
“Right,” I mumbled.
Gods. My mother would come to Helheim herself and beat me into carrion if Kilia and Ilse somehow ended up becoming chief and second.
“Sounds good enough.” Ottoh waved for his two iron-bound brothers. “You’re with them. Vero and I are with the angry ones. See you on the other side.”
“Darcke,” I hissed when he tried to go for Ottoh again. “Calm down.”
“You calling me by my name won’t accomplish that,” he said against my ear as Kilia and the others started rushing down the left passage. “But fine. I don’t wish to die here, impaled by these fucking stalactites.”
“Speaking of stalactites,” Ottoh said. “We were only able to save you in the last trial because we had weapons. These look sharp enough to do some damage to a human at least.”
“But not to the hrimthursar,” Vero mumbled. “I doubt anything we do will have an impact on them.”
“Real swords should,” I said distractedly as I studied the stalactites. There was something strange about them, and my eyes narrowed as Ottoh reached for one close to him.
Ice. There was no ice on them. Not a single drop of water frozen along them, even though the entire cave was encased in it.
“Wait,” I cried.
But it was too late. Ottoh’s hands had already clasped around the stalactite, and as soon as his fingers curled, the cave roared.
Darcke threw himself at me and slammed me against the wall, using his body to protect mine as the stalactites came down. Screams rang around us, the sound of stone breaking hammering against my ears, but it wasn’t until everything went dark and quiet that my heart stuttered.