Page 86 of The Ruins of the Heartless Fae

“It worked!” She released his hand. “It worked.”

The runes continued to glow, but something wasn’t right.

Her feet sank into the sand and the center of the runes fell into a gaping hole. She realized with a start that they were slowly being dragged into it, and that the gaping hole was widening, cracking farther into the sand. The sand licked her ankles hungrily, ready to pull her down.

Like lightning, Blár rolled to the side, away from the runes. She took a step in his direction, but the sand yanked her farther into it. A strangled scream escaped her lips and it pulled her waist deep. Her eyes widened and she clawed at the space surrounding her, her legs stuck in thickened mud. She tried to grab onto something, anything, but her hands slapped only sand. Until Blár’s hand found hers.

She didn’t think. She thrust her hands into his and trusted him. Trusted that he would pull her out. He yanked her toward him and her arm felt like it would pull from its socket, but the pain didn’t register. Her fear was swallowing her the same way the sand was eating her. It took less than five seconds for Blár’s hands to wrap around her forearms and for him to pull her out.

She flew forward and toppled on his chest as they tumbled on the ground. His arms tightened around her body. They both gasped for air, their limbs tangled together. She twisted her head and watched in horror as the runes were completely sucked into the black hole. The hole sewed itself together and sand bubbled up over it. In seconds, it didn’t even look like something had been there.

Blár threw his head backward onto the sand. “What … the … hell … was … that?” he said between shaky breaths, his grip on her waist loosening.

Kolfinna slid off his chest and to the ground beside him. She didn’t notice the hot sting of the sand or how close she was to Blár. Or the way his lean body had felt pressed against hers. Shedefinitelydidn’t notice that.

What would’ve happened if they had been sucked into that? Nausea twisted her stomach into a tighter knot and shivers racked her body, despite the sickening heat.

Blár had saved her, again. How many times did that make it?

“I’m sorry.” Tears pricked the corner of her eyes, but she wasn’t sure if it was from emotions or the grittiness of the sand. “I didn’t know that would happen.”

He cursed loudly, pulling himself to his feet. “No need to apologize. Pick yourself up. We’ve got a guest.”

Her forehead crinkled and she followed his gaze toward the sky. The dreki flew in their direction, wings flapping and mouth hanging ajar. Liquid fire dripped from its open mouth and it screamed into the sky, piercing her ears. The mana must’ve drawn it.

It roared again, shaking the sandy mountains and sending a shiver down her spine. She quickly scooped the long-forgotten sword and held it weakly in front of herself. Her gaze darted from the dreki to their surroundings. Where would it land? Her adrenaline pumping through her veins wasn’t enough to mask the burning of her biceps from holding up the sword. Her breaths were shallow and quick. Beside her, Blár stood tall and icy, his own sword held high. They could do this. They could kill it.

The dreki opened its mouth and roared. It flapped its wings and dropped on the spot where the runes had been written. Its eyes were crusted and scabbed from when they last attacked it, and it twisted its head from side to side, unseeing, as it screeched loudly and breathed fire to their left. Kolfinna ran in the opposite direction of the fire, her heart racing.

As if it heard her, it craned its head in her direction and opened its mouth. The smell of decay and charcoal assaulted her nose and she watched in slow motion as it inhaled, its chest squeezing and halving in size before it swelled and a spring of fire shot in her direction. She rolled just in the nick of time, her hair whipping behind her.

Blár moved lithely like the Jötnar when it hunted its prey, his eyes narrowed and fixated on the dreki. Kolfinna dodged the dreki’s fire breathing while Blár scaled the lizard-like body. He looked like he knew exactly what he was doing. Confidence oozed from his being.

The dreki kicked its head back, but Blár dug the sword into its shoulder and hung on as the dreki flailed, trying to shake him off. Kolfinna took her chance and ran to the dreki’s legs. Scales adorned its body like armor, but there were tiny slits around the scales where she could slip her sword in. She angled her sword at the joint of the dreki’s back leg and jammed it with all her might. It screamed louder, and she pushed harder, twisting the blade and then yanking it out. It stomped and roared, fire dripping from its mouth and onto the sizzling sandy ground.

Kolfinna rounded the beast, her gaze flicking to Blár, who was hacking away at the top of the dreki’s neck, but he couldn’t seem to get a clean cut. She moved without thinking, her leg tracing runes on the ground around the dreki. Fighting it wasn’t working. No matter how much Blár swung at the neck, it wasn’t budging. Maybe the dreki was a creature that had to be killed with magic?With runes?

Her mind was a blur as she circled the dreki and continued the runes with her feet, watching it carefully and dodging. It took minutes for her to circle the beast in a wide enough ring, but it felt like hours. Her thighs burned from exertion and she almost dropped her sword.

“Blár! Lend me your mana!” she screamed, waving her hands to catch his attention. The dreki turned in her direction sharply and opened its mouth to scream. She was already running to the side before it could blast her to a burnt crisp.

Blár jumped off its back, stumbled, and ran headlong to her. Sweat dampened his hair and a wildness shone from his eyes. She grasped his hand without thinking and dropped to the sand, her free hand searching the rune. She breathed out deeply and poured her mana into it, gripping onto Blár’s mana and doing the same. The dreki imprinted the sand with its claws and screeched loudly, the holes in its eye sockets turning in their direction before flicking somewhere else. Kolfinna didn’t have time to be gentle, so she yanked with all her might at Blár’s mana pooling into her chest and her hand.She thrust it into the runes.

For a few seconds, she thought she failed. It was too big of a circle, too little mana for such a giant ring, and so unlike the small circle she had made earlier, but then the dreki’s feet slithered into the sand, sinking deeper and deeper. It screamed, flapping its wings to lift its body up, but the sand was much quicker than when she had first made it.Quickly portal out of here, she had continuously etched into the sand around the dreki.

The dreki screamed as its body was consumed by the ground. A stream of pink silk flashed I front of her, catching in the swirl of sand and the thrashing lizard body. Her hair ribbon, she realized, reaching forward to grasp it, but it was too late. It warped with the rest of the dreki.

For an instant, the relief was palpable. Kolfinna’s freed hair whipped around her face. “We did it.” She sank into the sand. “It worked—”

They didn’t have time to celebrate, because the world shook and spun, sputtering and careening into darkness. She barely had time to scream before being ripped away.

22

Kolfinna slammed into the cold,hard floor. Her head made an audible thump. The pain subsided when she sat up and rubbed it. Blár was crumpled in a similarly twisted position; he groaned and hissed, one hand pressed against his back. Crumbling and half-broken vases and statues sprayed the floor. Ripped paintings hanging by a thread were tilted on the walls and some were on the floor, the pictures unrecognizable with age and brown splatters.She realized they had been transported back into the room they had last been in.

Blár pulled himself into a sitting position with a sharp inhale. “How much mana did you drain out of me?” He flopped down on his back and cursed. Sweat beaded his forehead and his chest rose and fell with labored breaths. “Damn, I’ve never been so tired.”

Kolfinna grimaced and fiddled with her hair. She hadn’t realized she had used so much of his mana. Toward the end, she had thrown almost everything into the runes because it would’ve been impossible with her mana reserve. And she had grown desperate in the heat of battle. “Sorry, I didn’t realize we would use so much … It was a bigger circle than the first time around, so we needed more mana.”

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