Page 133 of Storm of Fury
Right here.
Right now.
They spread out from the birch trees, and one of them detached a weighted rope from his belt. “This doesn’t involve you. You will live if you walk away.”
The older warrior snorted. “It would be best if we kill them all, Larya. Dead men tell no tales.”
“That is not our purpose,” the younger one replied, and Tormund guessed this was Illarion. “We contain her magic. We protect the world.”
Vadim spat on the ground.
Tormund found himself slowly shaking his head. “Perhaps you haven’t heard of my name,” he called, in a gentle voice. “But my mother would have blistered my ears if I was the type of man who walked away from a defenseless woman.”
“She’s not defenseless,” Illarion said coldly, starting to swing the rope.
“She’s a monster,” said Vadim.
“In my world, the monster isn’t always the one with scary magic. Sometimes it’s just the one who’s trying to hurt the innocent.” He drew his axe, staring the pair ofdrekidown. “I have hunted monsters. I know what I’m looking at, and she is not one of them. You cannot have her.”
“She was born from Chaos,” Vadim snapped, drawing a sword. “She will destroy the world if left to live unfettered.”
“Perhaps she has the potential to destroy the world. But I think it isdrekisuch as you that will drive her to that fate. She needs kindness. Safety. Someone who will show her that the world is not such a bad place after all.”
“She needs to be leashed,” Vadim growled. “Or put out of her misery.”
Tormund shook his head. “That’s not going to happen.”
“You will die,” Illarion said.
Tormund hefted the axe with both hands. “That fate is not yet set in stone. I’m not alone. You may have met my companions. One is a handsome prince who talks a lot and who thinks he can charm any woman he sets his sights upon. Normally, I wouldn’t think him much of a fighter, but Ishtar is his sister, and Marduk’s a little protective of her. The other is a surly, one-eyed bastard who thinks he’s amusing. You may have heard of him? They call him the Blackfrost, and he’s killed hundreds ofdreki. And then there’s Bryn, and you really don’t want to face her across the length of a sword. She will kick your teeth so far down your throat that you’ll be shitting them for days. I’m not alone, and you don’t have the time to kill me, kill the girl, and escape. So perhaps you should reconsider your options.”
“If we kill the girl, then our own deaths will be a worthy sacrifice,” Vadim replied. “The world must survive.”
Damn it. True fanatics.
Illarion shook his head. “You shouldn’t have gotten involved indrekimatters, mortal. I don’t want to kill you, but I will if I have to.”
The rope whistled through the air, wrapping around the head of his axe. Tormund tried to dig his heels in, but he was no match for Illarion’s brute strength.
The axe went flying, leaving him vulnerable.
Tormund turned to Ishtar, finding her squatting in the middle of the clearing, her eyes locked on him. “Run,” he told her. “I’ll… I’ll hold them off.”
And then he drew his knives and faced the pair ofdreki.
Alone.
Twenty-Five
Steel rangthrough the eerily quiet mountains.
Ahead of Bryn, light flashed off the whirl of a weapon and she could just make out the sight of Tormund lunging forward to catch the downward strike of a sword with a pair of knives.
No, no, no, no, no. Bryn sprinted down the mountain, her thighs aching. The fool! He was no match for two of the fiercestdrekishe’d ever encountered. She prayed to Odin for swift flight, ignoring the pain in her body as she sprinted.
Even as some part of her knew she wouldn’t be in time.
Each ring of steel upon steel echoed her nightmares. The flash of his face as he turned, barely fighting off the sword from behind, was exactly the same image she’d seen in her dreams.
