by Leia Stone
And it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.
“Allie!” Tore yelled from beyond the trees. “You all right?”
“Yeah,” I called back.
“Report in,” Tore ordered.
“I’m good,” Bodie yelled.
“Me too,” Johann replied.
There was a long pause. “Mack?” Tore called out. Nothing. “Johann,” he barked. “Check on Mack.”
After a beat, Johann swore loudly. “Skit. Mack’s hurt!”
I hurdled over the carcass at my feet and bolted toward the trees. My progress was slow as my boots sank into calf-deep powder, but I pushed forward. Through the storm, I barely made out the crumpled form of my lumberjack on the snow. Oh, God. I ran faster, skidding to a stop at Mack’s side just as Tore and Bodie closed in. We hovered over our friend, swords still drawn in case of another attack.
“Talk to me, man,” Tore urged.
Mack lay on the snow in the fetal position. His hands clutched his upper leg, and his teeth clamped down on his bottom lip. He looked like he was in agony. When I bent down to get a closer look, I noticed the blackening blob deep in his left thigh.
“Tore.” I pointed. “Look.”
Tore swore. “Dark magic.”
Mack’s body twitched in a convulsion. I met Tore’s gaze. “Can I heal this?”
“I’d love to say yes.” Tore furrowed his brow. “But you have no training with dark maladies, no crystals to withdraw the energy, and I can’t show you what to do because an injury of this magnitude is far beyond what I’m capable of dealing with.”
My left palm itched with energy, and I knew I had to try to help my friend. Forget finding Gud Morder, our top priority had just become keeping Mack alive. There was no way he could make it down the mountain in this state . . . and no guarantee that the storm would let up enough for us to call the Bifrost, even if he could. Our only option was to heal him. And if Tore couldn’t do it, then that left me. Something deep inside told me that if I trusted my power, I’d be able to do this. The truth resonated through my cells.
I drew a breath and channeled Tore’s bossy voice. “Johann, Bodie, protect the perimeter while I heal him,” I ordered. They looked at each other and nodded.
“On it.” Bodie moved a few feet away, and raised his weapon.
“Whatever you say, boss.” Johann took the opposite side.
Tore groaned. “Allie, we don’t have a vessel to trap the dark energy. If it gets into you, then—”
“It won’t,” I said fiercely. Tore dropped to his knees beside me and gripped his glowing weapon tight in his hands.
“Fine. I’ll do my best to help you. I saw my mother do this. Her assistant always held the dark magic in place until she could extract it, so it couldn’t attach to another host before she banished it. Usually they’d channel it into a holding crystal or a vial, but since we’re lacking in those we’ll need to get creative.”
I frowned, losing my confidence. We needed to hold the dark energy in place? As if it heard us plotting against it, the dark blob crept higher up Mack’s thigh. Tore laid his blue sword just below Mack’s groin, and the energy moved back down. Note to self: darkness hates our blades. Check.
“Argh!” Mack’s agonized cry filled the frosty air, and I hurriedly crafted an energy bowl with my left hand. Next, I lay my right hand on Mack’s thigh, setting my palm directly on top of the dark blob. The moment I came into contact with the angry energy, an ice-cold pain shot through my arm and jabbed at my heart. The darkness wanted to use me as its next host. Hell no, darkness. I pushed against the cold, and it slowly pulled away from my heart, moving upward toward my necklace. The stone seemed to be drawing the poison out of me. With a sudden surge, the darkness shot from my necklace into my armor, holding there as a blue healing glow formed in my right palm.
“Holy Hel.” Tore sounded shocked, but I drowned him out. The portion of the blob still within Mack’s leg fought against me with everything it had, and I couldn’t let anything break my concentration. The darkness was divided now—half trapped in my armor, and half recoiling from the blue light at my palm. It tried to move away from my hand, inching back up Mack’s thigh, but when it reached Tore’s weapon it recoiled with a hiss. Instinctively, I knew I needed to suck the darkness out of Mack’s leg through my hands, but after what I’d felt that first time, I didn’t want to chance it breaking through to my heart. Instead, I directed my blue light to surround the blob. Once it was fully encompassed, I opened my hand centers and drew my palm back. The energy followed my intention, slowly inching out of Mack’s leg and up into my arm.
Mack let out an ear-splitting scream.
“I am so sorry, Mack.” I flinched.
“Don’t you dare stop, Allie!” Tore yelled. “The darkness will kill you both if you do.”
Well, that was motivating. Since I had no intention of dying any time soon, I decided that Mack might just have to feel some pain. With one deep breath, I yanked the blue-coated black blob out of Mack’s leg and watched in equal parts horror and fascination as it danced up my arm, crossed over my heart center to my necklace, then slid down my armor and into my bowl. On its way, it picked up its worse half, so that by the time the bowl was filled, my armor—and my body—were free from the darkness.
Thank God.
Tore sprung to his feet, wasting no time in bringing his sword down hard on the contents of the bowl. The blob quivered one last time before breaking up into a black mist and dissolving into nothing.
I sat back on my heels, panting as I reached for Mack. “You okay?”
Mack was as pale as the snow. The sweat that dotted his forehead was freezing into icicles along his eyebrows, but he gave me a thumbs up.
I drew up all of the tension I’d been holding and released it in one big breath. Tore dropped back to my side and pulled my shoulders around so I faced him.
“You’re amazing,” he said. My heart stopped as his face swam into view. Those gorgeous blue eyes seemed to peer straight into my soul, his look infused with admiration I wasn’t used to seeing from my uptight protector. I didn’t know how to respond.
“The blue fireball . . . what was it?” I asked.
Tore continued to stare at me as if I’d pulled a gold-flinging leprechaun from Mack’s leg and we were now all millionaires. “The blue fireball was the Liv—life. You give life Allie. Just like your mother. You don’t need crystals, or vials, or anything else to heal. You are the antidote to every Asgardian malady that has ever been. You are life.”
I swallowed hard and let that sink in. Life. The blue fire was life. Okay. Right.
Mack had pushed himself up to a seated position. Now he reached over to place a hand on my shoulder. “My mom is going to be so pleased.”
I just laughed.
“I owe you a great debt.” Mack stared at me intently.
I shook my head. “You owe me nothing. Just stay alive. I only just got a god-brother, I’d hate to lose him already.”
Mack slung his big arm around my shoulders, giving me a squeeze.
“Jotunheim is not on my shortlist of favorite vacation spots.” I stood up, and Tore and Mack followed.
“Johann, Bodie, you can stand down,” Tore commanded. The guys dropped their defensive positions and released heavy breaths as they took in Mack’s standing form.
“Thank gods you’re okay, man.” Bodie came over to clap Mack on the back.
“Don’t scare us like that again.” Johann sheathed his sword, then gave me a swift hug. “Thanks, Allie.”
“Sure.” I hugged him back. “Now can we please get what we came here for and go the hell home already?”
“Anything you say.” Mack grinned, and I returned the smile. Our little group was alive and well. At this point, that was all we could ask for.
The storm continued to rage, so our visibility was limited to five feet on all sides. We trekked up the side of the hill in a tight huddle, and I sent regular energy scans ahead to make sure we weren�
��t ambushed again. When we were nearly to the peak, I sent my awareness out one last time. What I sensed made me gasp in horror.
“What is it, Allie?” Tore whirled to face me.
“The darkness . . . it’s on top of the light,” I croaked.
“No.” Tore closed his eyes, and held himself still. He must have been confirming my analysis, because a minute later he swore. “Skit. Allie’s right. Directly above this notch of the trail is a white light surrounded by a ring of darkness. We’re going to have to change our plan.”
Bodie nodded. “I say we run at the dark wall—rush into whatever it is and cut it down. Whether the ring is the elves themselves, or a dark magic wall, the Asgardian swords will be able to hack through them.”
Johann unsheathed his sword, then reached into his pack and withdrew a dagger. “Double fist style,” he grinned. “Reminds me of that one time in Muspelheim.”
Bodie snickered, “That’s what she—”
Tore snaked his hand out fast to sock Bodie in the shoulder, before shifting his gaze to Johann. “I think Mack peed his pants that night.”
I took a long look at my boys, committing their heckling to memory. These guys had come into my life and completely ruined it for the better. I didn’t even remember what it was like to be normal, or even human, and yet I wouldn’t trade it for my life. Even if said life might be cut very short, very soon, by a horde of angry night elves.
I reached out to put my hands on the biceps closest to me. Mack and Bodie looked down to meet my eyes. “There’s no one I would rather climb this frigid beast of a mountain with, and shortly thereafter, possibly die with, than you boys. Thank you for being with me,” I said sincerely.
Bodie, pulled me in for a side hug. “Nobody’s dying today. We’ll all be holding warm cups of Mack’s hot chocolate in an hour. Two hours, tops.”
I hugged Bodie back as the rest of the guys weaponed up. Then I drew my own sword and waited while Tore shifted his two swords between his hands. “All right,” Tore barked. “Let’s do this and get home.”
We set our packs down, and I mentally prepared myself for the next fight. Maybe it was just a nasty pocket of the storm that created the dark blob of energy up above us. Yep. That. Definitely.
Tore used one of his swords to draw our attack plan into the snow. “The four of us will go straight for the wall and hack through whatever it is.” He drew a single X on the ground. “Allie, your one job is to get to that weapon, and then we get out of here.”
I nodded.
Tore looked at the boys. “On three.”
Mack nodded. “One.”
Johann piped in. “Two.”
Bodie tightened his grip on his swords and gave a menacing look. “Three.”
Without another word they sprinted for the storm, running headfirst into whatever waited for us on the other side of the ledge.
I gave the boys a few seconds of lead time before I ran after them, charging into the raging storm and whatever darkness it held. In those few seconds, I’d concocted all kinds of wild ideas about what could be ahead of us: a hundred night elves surrounding my weapon, a dark energy wall, Nott herself. With the recent night elf attack, I’d completely forgotten where we were . . . so I was totally unprepared for the assessment that came on Tore’s panicked cry.
“Frost giants!” he yelled.
I ground to a halt as a menacing beast stepped forward through the fog. The jotun’s eyes fell right on me, and I froze, barely registering Tore’s movement at his feet. With one slash, Tore jammed his sword into the giant’s ankle, eliciting a fierce roar and a furious kick. Tore didn’t let go. Instead, he stabbed the giant again, slightly higher this time. It hit me that he was climbing the giant the same way he’d climbed the frozen ice wall. He was insane. But he was also effective. The giant was distracted enough by the ascending Asgardian that he tore his eyes away from me and focused on trying to kick Tore into the great beyond. Oh, God.
“Allie, go!” Tore’s shout snapped me out of my stupor.
I tucked my blade into my side and charged forward. My plan was to run between the giant’s legs and go for the piece of my weapon. But as I neared, the giant’s huge hand moved into my peripheral vision. He was onto me. I changed course, ducking into an army roll. The giant’s hand pounded the ground, then moved back to his own leg. Tore had scaled the length of the beast’s thigh and was using one of his swords to saw at its hip. The jotun let out a roar, its attention again focused on my protector.
“Hurry, Allie!” Tore yelled.
“On it!” I righted myself, dashing the rest of the way toward the bright energy pulse. Once I broke through the wall of fog, I skidded to a halt. Directly in front of me stood a small, wooden chest that absolutely crawled with magic. A black blob hovered atop the lid, lapping at the splinters of white light that shot through the cracks in the box. The piece of my weapon was in there. And I was going to claim it.
On one careful movement, I guided the tip of my blue, glowing sword to the lid, and the black energy retreated. Good. With a flick of my wrist, I popped the lid open. The blackness slunk to the ground as a brilliant light burst forth. It took my eyes a moment to adjust, but when I squinted through the light I was able to make out the base of my weapon—a shiny, ornate, titanium-colored hilt, with a looped hand guard, and small crystals imbedded throughout. The black blob danced up the side of the chest, lapping at the weapon within as I threaded the tip of my sword through Gud Morder’s handle, and lifted. The black blob struck at the hilt like a cobra, but each time it neared my sword, it fell back. Tore had been right—the Asgardian weapon repelled the darkness. Thank God.
When the hilt was fully free of the chest, I reached down and grabbed the piece. It sent a burst of power through my armor, infusing my body with a renewed strength. I wasted no time slipping the hilt into my backpack and zipping it tight. I was about to call out for the boys to let me know our exit strategy, when I heard Tore’s horrified shout.
“Allie, look out!” Fear laced his words. I whipped around just in time to see an enormous hand fly at me. A sharp blow reverberated across my chest, launching me into the air. I tried to pivot, but was not that coordinated while airborne. My back came down hard, right on the wooden chest. A heaviness descended on me, as if a vacuum had found its way into my heart and was attempting to implode my soul. What the hell?
My scream cut through the storm as a thousand needles pierced my back. My heart constricted, clamping down in protest as the needles shot through it. They penetrated my fourth energy center, sending torturous waves of darkness reverberating through my body. I writhed in utter agony as I realized what had happened.
I had landed right on the dark blob. And it had entered my body.
“No!” Tore shouted. Through my pain-filled haze, I barely made out his massive blond form. He flew through the air in a blur of red-hot rage. The next thing I registered was Tore on the jotun’s shoulder, stabbing him repeatedly in the eyes. Then I saw darkness. I couldn’t move; couldn’t breathe; couldn’t be. A deep depression settled into my chest. It felt like every good thing in the world had just died.
Tears streamed down my face as a mind-numbing pain wracked my body again. It was worse when I resisted, so I gave myself over to the darkness, allowing the waves to take me to the black spots in my vision. I faded in and out of consciousness, coming to as the sound of thunder filled the space. Had the giant fallen? I couldn’t be sure. The only thing I knew was that Tore, with terror and fury mingling on his face, had scooped me into his arms and pulled me close to his chest.
“Stay with me, Allie.” His words wrapped around me like a warm blanket. Something light nudged at my heart, but it didn’t stick. Everything was darkness.
Then we were flying. Flying? I forced my eyes open to see the mountain soaring by. Tore must have been on his snowboard—either that or the mountain was dropping straight out from under us. Wind and ice clumps attacked from all angles. My face was fully raw by the time the p
elting stopped. I tried to assess my surroundings, but I could only see more darkness. My intuition sensed we’d found shelter, possibly the cave where we’d spent the night, but I couldn’t know for sure. My body was numb as Tore laid me on the ground, then shouted out into the light.
“Heimdall, send down the Bifrost!” When nothing happened, Tore punched the wall of the cave and screamed again at the raging winds. “Open the Bifrost!”
Another wave of pain attacked, and I jerked uncontrollably. In an instant, Tore was back at my side. None of the other boys were here, and I desperately hoped it was because they were slower coming down the mountain and not because they were dead. They could be dead, the darkness inside of me whispered. I tried to argue, but I couldn’t form the words. The darkness had taken so much already. . . including my voice.
Tore rested his swords across my body, and placed two daggers atop my heart. He was probably trying to stop the darkness from snuffing out what little light I had left. His eyes blurred into view as he placed his palms on either side of my face. “Don’t you die on me, Allie,” he urged. “I’ve watched too many people that I love die. Don’t you dare do that.”
Tears filled my eyes. A small, blue light flickered in my chest, but it was too late. The blackness took me into its cold clutches, and I could think no more.
****
Words. Angry words. The low tones filled my head. I couldn’t make out their meaning, only the energy behind the sounds. Frustration. Anguish. Rage. And was that . . . fear?
Ice pricked at my chest, but my feet were warm. A fierce pressure at my head suggested someone was probing my scalp . . . either that or the pounding within my skull was trying to end me. I’d had headaches before, but this was a whole other level of pain. Stabbing mixed with throbbing mixed with vacuum-level suction. Red swirled with black inside my sixth energy center, a violent vortex of migraine-inducing pain in my head. Make it stop.
“We can’t call for the Bifrost, Johann. The storm’s too bad, it will tear us apart.”
Ah, words again! This time, I understood them. The Bifrost . . . that was some kind of tunnel, or boat, or . . . bridge! It was a rainbow bridge! No, that made zero sense. Bridges were steel and cables and asphalt, not rainbows. Duh. The darkness was trying to alter my memories.