I pulled Brax along with me, heading for the bridge. We stumbled onto it and I lowered Brax down, setting him against the stone side.
“This is your plan,” Caroline asked, gesturing at the bridge. “Aileen, we’re surrounded by dirt.”
I ignored her, running to the bridge’s side and peering down into the darkness. “Hector, look alive, buddy. You’ve got company.”
Liam and Nathan pelted out of the dark, their skin almost glowing white as they streaked toward us. They slid to a stop on the bridge, Liam’s gaze appraising as he took it in.
“A bridge. You’re hoping a troll is under it,” he said in realization.
“I know there’s a troll under it,” I told him.
He inclined his head. “If you’re right, they’re notoriously protective of those who use their bridge and even more difficult to kill.”
Just what I was thinking too.
He gave me a seductive smile. “Very smart.”
“I have my moments,” I told him.
The golems appeared at the end of the bridge, their makeshift forms shedding dirt and forest debris. It fell off them in clumps. Whatever magic had kept them animated was fading, but not fast enough.
“Caroline, howl,” I ordered, not taking my eyes off the golems or the snaking lines stretching out behind them.
The golems’ creator wasn’t far, I’d wager. They thought they sensed the end to the hunt, that we were tired and weak, defeated and ready for the kill.
A haunting sound lifted to the sky as Caroline tipped her head back. It was the call of the wild, a cry for help from one who was pack. If any of Brax’s people heard it, they’d come.
The golems inched onto the bridge, their eyeless faces turned toward us as if they could see. One jumped up onto the railing and skittered across it towards us.
“Any time now,” Nathan said, his body going tense as the golems advanced.
They were twenty feet away, now ten.
“Where is the troll?” Liam asked, his voice tight.
I shook my head. The golems were on the bridge by now. Hector should have reacted. I ran to the side of the bridge and looked down. Come on, big guy. Where are you?
“We’re going to have to run,” Liam ordered. “Aileen, take Brax and Caroline. Nathan and I will try to hold them off.”
I didn’t listen, too busy staring down into the dark. The flash of white fur and antlers caught my eye just as the stag moved out of sight. There was a low snort from under the bridge.
This was the second time the stag had made himself known to me in one night. It meant something. I just had to figure out what.
“I’ll be right back,” I called to Liam. I didn’t wait for a response, ignoring his order to stop as I threw my leg over the railing and jumped.
I landed with a grunt. The bridge wasn’t high off the ground and I made jumps higher than that every day, but the abuse my body had taken earlier was making itself known.
I turned to look under the bridge and froze.
I’d been right. The stag had wanted my attention. He stood on Hector’s chest, dwarfed by my friend’s considerable size. Hector’s large body was curled into a ball, his head nearly bumping against the supports of the bridge above him. I’d never seen all of him before. Just an occasional hand or part of his head. He was even bigger than I’d imagined.
I didn’t know how he could live under this small bridge. He must be more than ten feet tall and was almost as wide as he was tall.
That wasn’t what surprised me, however. The stag stomped his foot and snorted, tossing his head at a cocoon the color of moonlight, shimmering with an opalescent sheen. A large butterfly, the size of a small child, with insubstantial wings of white fluttered on Hector’s face.
I realized with a start that its mouth was in the shape of a long tube and it was feeding on Hector. With every flutter of its wings, Hector’s breath grew more and more shallow while the rock-grey color of his skin got paler until it was close to a chalky greyish-white.
The unmistakable sounds of fighting came from above me. The distinctive growl of Caroline’s wolf told me she’d found time to transform.
