“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 pelting 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.