“Do you remember how I came to you with an honest bargain last time and you broke it?” Kate asked.
The draugr laughed. It was a cold, hollow sound.
“Turnabout is fair play,” Kate said.
I grabbed the shield and ran.
The draugr howled, shaking the forest. Roman’s voice barked something in Russian. Raphael snarled.
Mist chased me, snaking its way down the mountain, trying to catch my ankles. I flew down the path.
Magic punched my back. I flew a few feet, hit the ground in a tight ball, rolled to my feet, and kept running. Just aftershocks. Kate must’ve used a power word, her own special brand of magic. It nearly wiped her out—they were her last resort.
You won’t escape me, an icy voice whispered in my ear. Run all you want, meat. Run faster.
Every hair on my body stood on end.
I leaped over a root. The mist snapped like a whip and wound around my neck in a noose. It jerked me off my feet. I flew back, clawing at the tentacle of magic with one hand, clenching the shield with my right. I hit the ground on my back and the magic pulled me, scraping my skin over the roots.
Oh no, you don’t. I growled and grabbed a branch with my left hand.
The magic yanked me backward, crushing my throat. Black circles swam before my eyes.
I planted my feet and forced myself up. Every muscle in my body strained.
The magic pulled.
I pushed forward. Step. Another step. No ass**le undead would drag me back. No. Not happening.
The magic tore.
I pitched forward and rolled, head over feet, curving my body around the shield, hitting every obstacle with soft parts of me, as if someone had stuck me into a dryer with a bag of rocks.
I crashed into a tree. The world swam a bit. I scrambled up. The shield lay in shambles at my feet, all except for the scale, which didn’t have a scratch on it.
A dark icy shadow fell on the trees next to me.
I grabbed the scale and spun around. Something white was falling, so I thrust the scale up in front of it and crouched underneath.
Foot-long spikes of ice sank into the ground around me, hammering the scale. I held the scale until the impacts stopped and dashed down the slope. Magic exploded all around me in cold bursts, rattling the teeth in my skull. The harsh stench of rot filled my mouth. Around me the trees groaned, as if pulled upright by an invisible hand. My throat burned.
I shot out onto the road.
The stone pillars loomed far in the distance to my right. I sprinted to them. My ribs were screaming in pain.
The trees creaked behind me. The draugr had made it onto the road.
My feet barely touched the ground. The draugr’s magic iced my back.
Something whistled through the air and a body hit the road in front of me, hurled by a supernatural force. Roman. The volhv wasn’t moving. I guess the binding didn’t work after all.
Between the pillars Ascanio swiveled the crossbow on the tripod, squeezed the trigger, and fired. The oversized bolt sliced through the air above me. Thank you, kid.
The world exploded with green. The blast wave slapped my back. I squeezed the last burst of speed from my exhausted body and cleared the pillars. I skidded to a stop and turned around. On the road the draugr stomped forward, an enormous monstrosity, dwarfing the trees, impossibly big. His magic swirled about him in a stormy cloud.
Raphael dashed out of the trees like a fur-sheathed nightmare and charged the giant, ripping into undead flesh.
I pushed Ascanio from the tripod and reloaded.
The undead tried to stomp on him, but Raphael darted back and forth, too fast, stripping dried muscle and gristle from the giant’s left leg.
Kate burst from the undergrowth and thrust her sword into the draugr’s right foot. I yanked the crossbow up and sighted on Håkon. Eat this, you undead piece of shit.
“Hit the deck!” I screamed.
Raphael and Kate dashed away. I fired. The bolt took the undead below the chest, burning it with emerald flames, and exploded. Undead flesh rained, but the draugr remained upright.
Roman staggered to his feet, his face contorted by anger. He screamed something. A flock of crows fell on the giant, ripping rotting flesh from its bones.
“Help the alpha!” I barked, reloading. Ascanio dashed to the draugr.
Raphael picked Kate up and threw her. She sank her sword into the side of the draugr’s leg. Magic snapped, and then a car-hood-sized kneecap crashed onto the road. Kate jumped clear. The draugr teetered and dropped to its knees.
“Fire in the hole!” I fired another shot. For half a second the arrowhead buzzed, lodged between the undead’s ribs, then it exploded, splashing emerald fire over desiccated flesh. The blast wrenched the draugr’s ribs wide open and through it I saw the shriveled sack of its heart.
The crows hurtled into the hole and out of the draugr’s back, dragging chunks of bone and tissue with them.
I saw the ravaged remains of the heart and fired. The arrow pierced the tough muscle. Bull’s-eye.
The explosion shook the ground. Chunks of rotting corpse pelted the ground and Håkon crashed like a falling skyscraper. His chin hit the dirt, his entire skull reverberating from the impact.
Ha. We killed an unkillable giant. Eat your heart out, Beast Lord.
Kate got up and limped toward us.
Her knee. She had an old injury that kept flaring up. I had completely forgot. Damn it. “Is your knee okay?”
“It’s not the knee.” Kate limped past the pillar and sagged against the cart. “He backhanded me, the sonovabitch. I hit a tree trunk with my hip. I swear this leg is cursed.”
Roman spat on the ground. His face was mournful. “Such a waste. One-of-a-kind and we had to kill it.”
It almost tore us to pieces and he had regrets. Wow.
Raphael strode to me. His eyes were on fire.
“Nice shot,” he said.
“Thank you. You were…” Awesome, brave, fast, amazing. “…not so bad yourself.”
Roman shook his head. “Such a waste.”
“I’ll split the teeth with you,” Kate said. “If you want them.”
He turned to her. “Of course I want the teeth. And the hair.”
The two of them started for the head, looking like two starved dogs who had just found a fresh juicy carcass.
Raphael grabbed me into a bear hug. I grinned at him. This wasn’t so hard after all.
Ascanio trotted up. “Why are they pulling his teeth out?”
“They’re magic,” I said.
“Do you want me to help them?”
“Yes,” Raphael said.
The kid went off to the giant corpse, where Kate and Roman argued over the teeth.