Page 51 of Storm of Fury
“Damn it, woman,” he whispered, his weight shifting onto the balls of his feet. “You’re not inflammable. Run.Run.”
She wasn’t going to run.
The leaddrekibelched an enormous line of flame across the rocks. Tormund sprinted toward Bryn, slamming into her as thedrekiswept past. They tumbled head over heels, and heat seared the skin on his back. He gasped and rolled free of her, slapping at the small flames licking at his shirt.
“What are you doing?” she yelled, scrambling for her fallen sword.
“Are you insane? That bitch can breathe fire!”
Bryn cursed under her breath, pushing to her knees and looking up. “I knew what I was doing. Damn it, Haakon, anytime you want to shoot that thing!”
Tormund gaped at her as she hauled him to his feet.
But there were moredrekicoming, and not enough time to argue.
The whine of the crossbow’s hook hissed through the air. Adrekiscreamed in rage as it snarled around the creature’s right wing, and then Marduk was there, tearing into thedreki’sunguarded flank with raking claws.
“They’re coming down!” Tormund yelled, as the goldendrekiprince escaped the trap.
The browndrekicaught in the cable squealed as it tried to flap free, and was hauled to the ground.
“And she’s coming around!” Bryn sheathed her sword and shoved him into the trees, as the original blackdrekihissed at them.
“Run!”
“What about Haakon?” she gasped, as they both sprinted through a grove of birch.
“He’ll survive!” Tormund yelled. “He’s like a cockroach!”
It was the pair of them he was worried about. Not alldrekicould breathe fire, but this one clearly could. The defiant screech of a thwarteddrekiechoed behind them, and then it was flapping over the birch.
“This way!” He yanked her to the left, heading downhill.
Over rocks and shale. Through stands of trees, their branches whipping his shoulders and face. A glance over his shoulder showed Bryn on his heels. And a furiousdrekisoaring over the tree line toward them.
“Down!” he yelled as the trees thinned out, and they found themselves at the edge of a small cliff. He slid to a halt, then tried to go to the right.
Bryn slammed into him, driving him over the cliff. He caught a glimpse of a river far below and an outcrop of rock screaming toward him.
They hit hard.
Thedrekiroared, gouts of blue-white flame shooting from her mouth. Bryn rolled over Tormund, tearing her cloak over the pair of them.
Heat washed over them. He screamed as fire obliterated them, but somehow the flames seemed to disperse.
And then they were gone, as momentum carried thedrekipast them.
Bryn gasped for breath, lowering the cloak and looking up. Her soft breasts almost crushed his face, distracting him from the pain of landing.
Tormund gaped up at her, half breathless with the fall. Gods, he didn’t think he could move. But they had to. “Did we just—? How did we—?”
“Magical cloak,” she told him, her eyes locked on the blackdrekitrying to kill them. “Impervious to flame and has the ability to turn its wearer invisible.”
“Let me guess… Thor’s?”
“Not quite. It once belonged to Freyja.”
Freyja?Then he realized she’d never met Rurik’s queen. Which meant…. “The goddess? How did you get that?”
