Page 13 of A Light So Blinding
Astrid had thought she would be prepared for what would come, but she had been wrong. The brutality these men showcased made her heart race and her palms grow sweaty. Some of them had been given weapons, and they used them to their advantage.
To her right, a man swung an axe that caught in another man’s shoulder. The scream the injured man let out couldn’t even be heard over the sounds of so many others yelling. Another man had a sword, and he lopped off a man’s arm with ease before getting tackled to the ground by another.
There were trolls in the mix, too. They stood two heads taller than all the human men in the crowd, but they didn’t seem to be fighting to get to her. They were fighting to keep the humans away from her. For that, she was grateful. It was the human men she feared. Their hungry gazes cast to her on the podium multiple times, and she could feel the malice radiating around them.
Where was he?
The king had even said the Bull would be here, so where was he? Her gaze searched the crowd, but she didn’t see anyone with horns on their head. Which made little sense to her, considering how much the king had bragged about him being here in this fight. He had to be here. That was her entire plan.
A man reached the bottom of her podium, wrapped his arms around it, and started to climb. Astrid’s breath caught in her lungs. What was she to do? He couldn’t catch her. She refused to go with him. If she kicked him when he finally made it to her, would that be considered tampering? Would the king simply choose who she went with?
The ground rumbled as another door opened. This one was held by chains, and everyone in the arena froze as they looked at the massive door. Fog rolled out of it, as though it was so cold that the air touching the heat in the arena changed form.
And then he emerged. Face creased with rage, head down and horns first, like the Bull they had named him. He came into the arena seeking a fight. His head connected with the first man near him, then his hands found another.
She turned her face away from the carnage as the Bull ripped the man’s head from his shoulders. So easily. He’d just twisted that man’s skull and popped it off. Though his biceps had bulged and his body had appeared to show some strain, it had been far too easy for him to do.
The man at the bottom of her podium struggled to get higher. He climbed frantically, an expression on his face that was close to adoration. She could barely make out the babbling noises he was making.
“Priestess! Look at me. Cast your gaze upon the unworthy.”
A fanatic, then. She’d always known there were some, but she’d never had to suffer through the attentions of one before.
The man with the axe approached the Bull, and she wondered if he was going to get to her in time. But then the troll’s gaze flicked to her. His shoulders squared, and she swore she watched a huff of breath leave his nostrils before he started fighting in earnest.
Men flew into the air wherever he walked. Like he was grabbing them and just tossing them away from him rather thanfighting. He was wading through countless soldiers, men who had fought for ages in this arena, all because of her.
Why did that make her heart beat so quickly? Was it fear?
She didn’t think she was afraid of him. Of all the men here, she didn’t believe he would do anything to harm her. And even if he did, she was prepared to do whatever it took to get her sister back. This troll would want his freedom just as much as anyone else. But he was her leverage. He was the man who would get her sister back to her, back to the life they should have had for all these years.
Breath tickled her feet. She looked down to see the frantic man had successfully made it up the pole, and was now trying to figure out how to get onto the podium with her.
She would not make room.
“Priestess!” he called out, his breath yet again fanning across her feet. “I have made it to you.”
He didn’t have long to look at her. A massive, green clawed hand landed on his back and ripped him off the pole. He screamed before he landed on the ground and fell silent, either stunned or dead. She didn’t know.
Now she was staring down into the Bull’s harsh features and wondering what she was supposed to do. Go with him? Of course. But there were men fighting all behind him. Men fighting…
Trolls, she realized.
The trolls were surrounding him. With their backs to her, they were fighting the humans off so he could stand unencumbered and look up at her.
“The king said whoever can keep me in the arena can keep me for good,” she called down to him. “Do you think that person is you, Bull?”
She wondered if her voice had been amplified. It seemed there was an answering gasp that echoed among the watchers inthe stands. As though everyone was holding their breath at the battle before them that seemed all too easy.
“I do,” he rumbled, that deep voice making every hair on her arms stand straight up.
He lifted his arms like this was something they did every single day. He didn’t seem to care about the carnage happening behind him, or that there was blood running down his hands and claws. He had eyes only for her.
For the first time in this entire mad plan that she’d somehow thought up, she wondered if this was the wrong thing to do. She had no idea who this troll was. Astrid had never even talked to a troll before him, and all of this had just been in her head because of a questionable letter that could very well have been a prank.
Her desperation for her sister had always been her weakness, but...
She had no choice now. He gestured for her again, and even though she was terrified, she leapt into his arms. He caught her with ease, like she weighed nothing, before turning and shouting, “Now!”
