Page 42 of Curse of Darkness
A yelp sounds.
“Ice wolves?” I hadn’t seen a thing.
“They’ve been downwind,” she calls. “Hunting you from the second you left the Hallow.”
We slip and slide down the slate-covered path toward the lake. Tundra grasses mark the edges of the trail and patches of snow lie in clumps here and there.
But it’s the sound of a howl that sets my teeth on edge.
“There!” Finn points at a jagged stone sticking out of the ground ahead of us. A rune is carved into the flat surface of it. “If we make it past that point, they won’t follow!”
My legs stretch into a ground-eating run. Finn stands a head taller than me, but it’s clear he’s setting a pace I can match, and Eris shields my rear.
“Three on the left!” Eris yells. She shoves me in the back, “Keep moving!”
An arrow twangs.
Another ice wolf yelps.
The blood hammers through my veins, pulsing in my ears. My bow’s strung across my back, along with my pack, but I don’t have time to nock an arrow to it.
I reach for the dark flame within me, the one that whispers through my veins.
“Eris!” I yell, turning and waving a hand.
She sprints toward me, barely one yard in front of a pair of wolves focusing on her hamstrings.
“Down!” I scream.
Eris hits the ground, and I throw my hand forward, a wash of heat and flame bursting from my fingertips. It sizzles over her skin, smashing into the pair of wolves. White fur erupts into fire. Howls of pain echo. And then they’re rolling in a patch of snow, yelping as they flee into the woods.
I hold my hands out as the alpha draws to a halt, his lip curling back off his enormous teeth. “Go ahead,” I yell at him. “Eris! Move!”
She scrambles across the ground toward me, finally pushing to her feet.
Huge shapes slink out of the trees as we back toward the pillar of stone.
Eris wrenches me after her just as the entire pack bursts forth from the fir. Dozens of them snap and snarl, forming an arrowhead of attack.
“Run!” Finn yells, and an arrow flashes past me, burrowing in the heart of the silvery wolf to the right of the alpha. “You’re nearly there!”
Another hiss.
Another yelp as a second wolf goes down.
We burst past the pillar, and it’s like we run straight through an invisible barrier—one that feels like a shock of lightning. It disorients me enough that my feet go out from under me as we hit loose shale. Slamming against the ground, I start sliding down the hill, sharp rocks stabbing at my legs and ass. The ground whooshes past, and then the edge of the cliff comes up fast.
Below it, a glittering lake glimmers, the surface reflecting back the endless gray skies.
I flip to the side, reaching desperately for something—anything—to grab onto before I go over the edge, and Eris snags my hand.
She’s on her back, sliding with me, but the second our fingers lock together, she digs her heels in.
Suddenly there’s nothing beneath me. A scream tears free of my throat as I lash out wildly and catch her wrist right before I go over the edge of the cliff. Eris slams to a halt, heels driving into a runnel in the stone. My body swings and then slams back into the granite face of the cliff.
“Got you!” Eris grinds her teeth as she tries to haul me back up. “Don’t look down!”
“Curse it, Eris!” I close my eyes, my pulse a thundering waterfall. “That’s the worst thing you can ever say to someone who’s hanging over the edge of a cliff!”
