The answer was some tip-tapping of pincers on stone. I took that as a yes.
“Good. Now here’s what I’ll give you.” And then I filled them in on my plan.
Time was of the essence. Tormund had been right about that, at least. We still had a long journey to Rockheim if we wanted to make the trade, then another journey back. The dwarves in the northern villages needed to know they’d get their sunstones back, or they’d move on to somewhere else. I could eventually get Tormund out of all that rubble, but I’d barely made a dent in several hours. It might take days.
Days we did not have.
And so I conducted the spiders to scrabble up the stone wall, grab some rocks, and haul them to wherever they deemed best. Despite Tormund’s frustrated commentary, the spiders seemed happy enough to have a task to do. In fact, they seemed to comealive with it, emitting a strange sound that was almost like a happy chirp.
When all the smaller rocks had been carried off the boulders, the spiders crawled behind the line of carts and blinked at me. I furrowed my brow at them in question. One scurried forward, tapped at the massive boulder, then shoved. The boulder didn’t move, but his leg twisted at an odd angle, and he chirped—this time much less happily.
“Ah, I see,” I said, nodding. “You can move the smaller ones easily enough, but your legs aren’t strong enough for a big one like this.”
I considered the boulder. It was pretty intimidating.
“Tormund!” I called. “I’m going to try something.”
“Your voice has gone all high-pitched,” he said slowly. “Are you sure whatever you’re thinking is a good idea?”
“Nope!” I said with a laugh. “I need you to stand aside.”
“Stand aside? Stand asidewhere?”
“Out of the way of the smallest boulder.”
A long pause followed. “All right. I’m out of the way.”
“That was surprisingly agreeable of you. You aren’t going to try to talk me out of my plan?”
“You’re going to roll the boulder far enough forward for me to squeeze through the crack,” came his reply. “It’s a good idea.”
“And you’re not going to tell me I should leave you trapped in there? Because of your cursed powers?” I raised my eyebrow.
“I just want to see your face again, Astrid. Fuck all the rest of it.”
I smiled. Gods, I wanted to see his face again, too. It had only been a few hours, but it felt like years had gone by. I wanted to bury my face in his chest and relish the scent of shadows against skin. I wanted to feel his arms wrap around me, protective and steady and sure. And I wanted to look into his eyes and see the truth of his feelings. Neither of us had voiced it, but it was real.
I’d never been more certain of anything.
“You know, in the storybooks, it’s the damsel who always needs saving,” I said as I palmed the stone. “Feels kind of good to know the damsels can do the saving sometimes.”
I swore I couldfeelhim smile as I shoved the boulder. It took all my muscles straining, my heartbeat pounding as hard as it could, and my forehead doused in sweat. But I pushed it, inch by inch, until a gap opened up large enough for Tormund to escape.
As soon as he stepped through, he swept me up in his arms. My feet left the ground as he spun me in circles, clasping me against him like he was scared to let go, or else he’d never again touch me. I closed my eyes and buried my face in his neck, breathing him in. The scent of sweat and sunstone-kissed skin. But gone was the scent of his shadows.
I pulled back. “Did you do it? Did you listen to what I said?”
“I think my curse is broken,” he murmured, pulling my lips down to his. “All because I couldn’t stand the thought of losing a life spent with you.”
28
ASTRID
“Before we go in there, I need to tell you about my curse,” Tormund said, steering me toward the pond. I sat on the flat rock once again and pulled my knees to my chest, waiting for his story.
He sighed before he began, pain evident in his eyes. “Just like you, I had this curse all my life. And like you, I felt the repercussions of it fairly young.” Wincing, he glanced away. “I didn’t know how to control my powers for a long time, and I was just a kid. You know how kids are. Wild and unfettered. Emotions are big.”
I nodded. Yulla’s children were boisterous, to say the least. They were an explosion of happiness and noise, or sadness and noise. So much life they had. I could only imagine how hard they’d find controlling a power like the one Tormund had been cursed with.
