Page 58 of Soul of Shadow
A car windshield shattered.
Wait. That shouldn’t have been possible, right? Asgardian creatures could walk among human society, but they could not interact with it. They could not harm humans, nor should they have been able to break their cars’ windshields.
Unless …
A high-pitched shriek split open the night. Without pausing or stumbling, Charlie whipped her head around to face the source of the noise—which turned out to be a young human girl standing beside a silver car, her hair in two pigtails and a paper cotton candy tube held in one hand. She looked like she’d gotten lost on the way back from the concession stand, and her mouth was open in a terrified scream as she stared up at the draugar.
Charlie barely had time to register this scene before she went crashing through the hedge, leaves stuffing themselves into her eyes, sticks tearing at her skin. She did her best to ignore the pain, pushing through until her feet landed on grass and her face burst out into the fresh air.
She yelled to Elias, who had gone through the hedge without incident, “Did that girl just—”
“Yes,” he yelled back, cutting her off.
“So she could see—”
“Yes.”
“But that’simpossible.”
With a guttural roar, the draugar burst through the hedges,leaving behind a gaping hole where its clawlike fingers tore through the leaves. It was getting closer with every step. Charlie pushed herself to go faster, but the school was still half a football field away. Her puny human speed would never carry her there fast enough; the draugar’s legs were as tall as she was, each step more than twice her own.
The grass started a slow slope upward. Pain seared through her legs as she pushed harder,harder, her arm pressing the vätte so tight to her side that she feared she would squish him. Eyes squeezing shut, she prayed for a miracle. Just a few strides farther. Just a few more…
Skeletal fingers sunk deep into her back.
Charlie screamed, her eyes flying open as she sprawled forward. Pain. Pain like nothing she had ever experienced. Five knives dipped in poison, tearing through her skin as if it were butter…
Her body hit the ground hard. The vätte spilled from her arm and rolled through the grass. She tried to lift her head, raising it just enough to see Elias spinning around before a second set of razor-sharp fingers plunged into her skin.
This time, the monster went for her side. Its fingers dug deep beneath her flesh and wrenched her upward, spinning her to face its deathly eyes. Charlie’s pain receptors were on overdrive; blood gushed from ten different slashes in her body. The air flew from her lungs as the draugar slammed her to the grass. Up close, it was even more horrifying: its bones were gray and brittle, stray flecks of skin still hung from its cheeks. It roared in her face, spittle flying from beneath its tusks. Its teeth were like scythes, and as they arced toward her, Charlie saw the end approach, saw her mom waving from the porch, her brotherlaughing in the back seat of her car, her friends teasing each other over lunch, her twin sister counting down from thirty as Charlie searched desperately for a purple rabbit…
Suddenly a shadow engulfed her, its arms somehow cool and comforting, and the draugar let out an agonizing scream as a low voice whispered, “Shhh, I’ve got you,” before the pain overtook her senses and consciousness fled.
27
At first, all Charlie knew was darkness. Darkness and a dull, throbbing pain across her back, as if a fire had burned in zigzags along her skin, leaving the flesh scarred, purple.
As consciousness crept slowly over her, memories seeping back into her head, the first thing she realized was that she was lying on her stomach in a soft, warm environment. And although she was in pain, it wasn’t nearly enough for what the situation warranted. She had been attacked by a twelve-foot-tall skeleton monster with pickaxes for fingers; she shouldn’t even be alive.
Her eyelids fluttered open. She turned her head on the pillow where it rested and saw a face made of shadow bent over her body, eyes shut, lips muttering. She nearly cried out before her brain understood that it was only Elias, still in his mare form.
Traveling down from Elias’s face, her eyes found that she was in a surprisingly comfortable bed in a warmly lit room with a high ceiling and wooden floor. Elias was seated beside the bed on a footstool. She was lying with her head pointed toward the right side of the pillow. The quilt draped over her body wasclearly handmade, the type stitched together by a loving mother or grandma. Its weight was snug and reassuring.
On top of the quilt, Elias’s midnight hands rested. They were spread wide, palms centered right over her back. Cool air pulsed from his hands, seeping through the quilt and oozing all across her back, as if she were standing before a lightly blowing fan. She didn’t know what he was doing, but it felt wonderful.
Her lips cracked open, her voice raw as she whispered, “Elias.”
Elias jerked backward, dark eyes opening. He blinked several times, the cool breeze disappearing as his hands lifted from the blanket. Finally seeming to remember where he was, he looked down at Charlie.
“You’re awake,” he said.
“I am,” she rasped. “What happened?”
“The draugar caught you.” His fingertips skimmed along the quilt. “Right here. Tore up your back and side pretty badly. I fought it off and ran you home. To my home, I mean.”
“Youfought it off?” She started to push herself off the bed, but Elias laid a gentle hand on her shoulders, easing her back to the mattress. “How? That thing was twice your size.”
He gave her a half smile. “I have a few tricks up my sleeve.”
