Page 36 of Ransomed to the World
When Annora saw Mason still standing, she nearly dropped to her knees in relief, the tip of her sword dipping. For a second, she’d been afraid the reapers had taken him from her too.
The rest of the trolls glanced around the cavern with wide eyes, then lifted their hands and backed away warily, cradling their injuries. While some gave a nod of respect to Mason, their outright fear was reserved for her.
If it kept them from attacking Mason, she was fine with that.
“You have to hurry and get the stone.” Mason strode toward her as the last of the afterworld began to fade around them. “We only have a minute at most remaining.”
Confusion whirled inside Annora, and she straightened slowly, startled to see Flora’s unfocused eyes staring up at her. She didn’t expect to see her body at all.
Then it clicked—reapers harvested souls.
They must have sensed Flora’s death from the afterworld and came to claim hers.
Annora’s legs trembled at the thought of how easily they could’ve grabbed Mason instead, and she swallowed hard past her tight throat.
The troll’s body was ravaged, like she’d been dead for a week already. Her flesh was shriveled up like a prune and leaked from the many holes. The coffin flies flicked around the body, feasting on the surface, while the beetles swam underneath, her skin bulging as they burrowed into her flesh. Giant webs swaddled her legs as hundreds of spiders began to swarm over her and lay claim.
Pushing aside her shock, Annora released the sword, watching it vanish in a swirl of smoke to return to Edgar. She hurried forward and crouched next to the body, biting back a groan when the muscles of her thighs protested the burn. Taking a bracing breath, she shored up her resolve, then shoved her hand into the gaping wound in the stomach.
And right into a pool of warm blood.
Something swam in it, brushing against her fingers, and she shuddered, nearly yanking her hand out. No! She needed that stone!
Gritting her teeth, she shoved her arm deeper until it was up to her elbow.
The smell of rot and steamy blood thickened the air until it became so polluted, she fought hard not to gag.
She fished around until she felt the stones tingle against her fingers, then began pulling them out. By the time she finished there were close to three dozen stones. Without hesitation, Annora plucked one out of the mix, the black opal shimmered with a deep vein of red and gold, and she clutched it to her chest.
She smiled up at Mason, not caring she was splattered, practically coated in blood and gore. “Do you think we made it in time?”
He gave a firm nod, like there was no question that they succeeded. “Yes.”
Mason’s shirt was in tatters, barely hanging on his massive shoulders. His pants were shredded from the knees down, and his shoes were just an afterthought. His hair was wild and bristled aggressively, swaying as if trying to sense a threat.
Every inch of his skin was battered, a smear of blood across his arm highlighting a nasty cut. The white of his left eye was red where the blood vessels had burst, a lump was already forming over his right eye, blood dripped from a slight tear in his ear, and a bruise darkened his jaw.
Her fingers itched to heal him, but she was wary of calling on the afterworld so soon. She decided not to take the risk, not until she was sure she could guarantee his safety. It physically hurt for her to turn away from him when he clearly needed her help.
Annora shoved the gem down her bra, worried that if it lost contact with her skin, the recognition and love in Mason’s eyes would fade once more.
Her heart couldn’t take it again.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she gathered up the rest of the stones. Mason handed her a shallow bowl—no, not a bowl—a second looked showed it was a part of a shattered skull. She hesitated for a moment, then piled the stones inside. As she walked toward the exit, she hesitated when they came upon the trolls who’d attacked them.
As one, they bent down on one knee and bowed their heads.
Annora stumbled away from them…only to collide with Mason. She whispered to him out of the corner of her mouth, unable to take her eyes off them. “What are they doing?”
“You hold their stones.” His huge, gentle hands came to rest on her shoulders, and he gave her a reassuring squeeze. “You hold their future in your hands.”
Annora glanced at the troll in front of her, then down at the stones. Some of the gems were so black, they looked like a lump of coal. Any magic in the stones were completely absent, and she knew that whomever they belonged to was long gone.
As she thought of the troll in front of her, one of the stones shimmered brighter than the others. She plucked it out and offered it to the troll. The troll’s jaw dropped, her pale, violet eyes turning liquid as tears shimmered in them, and she hesitantly accepted the gem. One by one, Annora went down the line, selecting the stone that spoke to her and handing them back one after the other.
Which still left her with two dozen or so remaining.
The trolls slowly rose to their feet, looking at each other with furrowed brows, their stones clutched in their fists, when one of the larger males spoke.
