Latham and Aric stay at my sad pace despite their leader becoming a blur within the thick, windy snowfall.
Something tingles over my skin, and I’m not sure if some sort of magic or the growing cold is to blame. Either way, my nose is downright rosy, my fingers are frozen, and it’s growing even harder to trudge through the deepening snow and slippery ice.
“Can’t we use your weird magic to travel?” I question as my teeth chatter from the chill. Having a shortcut would make this so much more bearable.
“Our magic won’t support us carrying another person outside the Realm of the Living,” Latham informs me apologetically, eyeing my chattering teeth like he can’t fathom being cold enough to physically shiver.
We’re not in the Realm of the Living any longer? Fuck. What have I gotten myself into?
I almost question it, but Aric mutters something about barriers, realm magic, and fucking rules. It doesn’t make sense to me, but I believe them. If there was an easier way to travel than hauling my sorry ass up this mountain, I have no doubt they’d do it.
My conversation dies to nothing but exerted, gasping breaths, but I never stop moving. My future might be at the top of this mountain, and I won't give that up. I won’t give up the chance to find my mother after all these years.
I can’t even remember what she looked like. It’s like a blank space is there when I try to think back to my life before I joined the Dark Moon Pack. She doesn’t exist at all to me. Sometimes I think I still remember her voice.
But what if that’s just a part of my mind trying to comfort me after all these years?
I shake my head at the pathetic thought and focus on the journey ahead.
“Where do we go once at the top?” I yell from over the howling wind.
“What?” Aric mouths, but I can’t fully hear him.
“I said—”
A blade of white ice slashes through the storm. It slices into my arm with searing pain that steals my breath away before the blade flings back up. It arches to come down even harder. Aric darts out and he pummels the attacker to the ground, both of them being eaten up by the thick flurries in the dark.
I turn toward Latham but…
He’s gone.
Cold hands meet my chest and it’s only then that I see him—a monstrous man, several feet taller than Torben, looms over me. Jagged icicles dangle from his beard, and dry gray eyeballs look down on me as bony white fingers wrap around my neck.
“This is no place for the living,” he croaks like glass as ice fills his throat.
My fist collides with his chest, but my fingers slip right through. Rib bones crack against my forearm, and for a second, I’m stuck within him. I slash against his gigantic body and his frail, tattered torso breaks apart around my arm like shattered ice.
Scrambling to my feet, I glance around with widened eyes. Latham stumbles into me, his fiery swords slashing at the attacking corpse in front of him. There’s no time to think, so I act instead. Kicking out, my boot collides with the leg of the attacker and his femur makes a sickening crack that echoes off the stone mountain pass surrounding us.
The giant skeletal man falls to the snow with a coarse scream that pierces the night. With a slash of strength, Latham drives his blade through the large skull of the thing withering on the ground. A nasty crunching sound follows every inch the sword sinks in.
“Ice giants,” he tells me. “They guard this realm.”
“Right,” I say blankly just as another descends on me.
I fling it off before it can fully grip my bloodied arm. It tumbles down the mountain behind me,
but another rises in its place. Latham’s attack sends the giant staggering backward against the slick ground, but it takes Latham with him, the snowfall overtaking my friend and washing the last image I see of him away into the night. I lunge forward at the man of bone standing before me, but two more of the skeletal giants leap onto my backpack, earning themselves a harsh meow from the sleeping cat inside.
Just as I shake one of them off, two more dig their bones into my flesh as they drag me down into the cold blanket of snow. I try to escape with slamming fists and kicking feet. The wolf inside me growls to life, but I can’t focus on her. I can’t focus on the strength of her magic enough to bring her forward through all my chaotic emotions. Finger-like claws scrape at my skin. Bony limbs flail over me. Cold weight presses down on me.
It’s all too much.
Green eyes meet mine from over the icy skulls of the giants. Torben stomps hard, and a flash of fire erupts around us. A blaze of flames circles out from his enormous body, igniting the walking corpses as they stagger off, wailing into the night. The ones on top of me scatter like bugs, and the godlike man stares down at me like a true savior. The snow whips at his long, messy blond hair. Snow clings to his beard. He looks untouchable.
His big hand lowers to me.
A breath slips into my lungs for the first time in what seems like an hour. I take his hand. Warmth spreads through my fingers and up my arm until it sears through my chest like magic. My lips part to ask him about his power…
