I grinned. “Must be a girl thing.” I gestured to the spear. “Are you saving that for Brin?”
His canines flashed, and I added, “Hit hard, fast, and first.”
“I will.”
Levi balanced the weight and tightened his grip. Angel was out on the ice. The tall man was twenty feet behind her, moving cautiously. I joined the queue on the riverbank. The skeleton of a broken boat poked like ribs from the snow. Seeking a handhold against the slippery slope, I grabbed the closest rib, flinched when the rotted wood broke.
Then I slid onto the ice. My arms windmilled as I balanced. The spikes scraped on the surface and held, step after step—and each step brought me closer to Grayson.
My pulse pounded with anticipation. After all the nightmares, the worry over magic, I was finally doing something. Moving us closer to the goal. I would be what Grayson asked all those months ago, to be both a weapon and a savior.
Because that was how one lived with passion. With courage. To reach for a greater vision of what life could be.
I relaxed, until one Blackfish shouted, “Gods-damned pigs!”
My lungs froze at the growing thunder as hooves hit the frozen ground. The Blackfish swung around, shifting into a muscular black wolf, while two of his fellows did the same.
“Go!” I yelled at Levi as I reached for an arrow, nocked it into the bowstring.
“You first,” he yelled above the din.
But I was already stumbling back toward shore, following the wolves in an awkward run. From the high ground, I dug in with my spiked feet. Readied the bow, sighted down the arrow. Monstrous, hairy gray pigs with yellowed tusks were galloping like lemmings, flowing between rising stones and down the incline.
Red splats bloomed on the snow as the Blackfish attacked. Pig bodies sailed through the air with their legs still churning. The squealing was high-pitched, and the low, stuttering grunts reminded me of Azul. Of the battle after the vampire tunnels. The scent of carrion turned the air sweet and unnatural.
I shot and shot. Retreated when necessary and ran to a better vantage point. Three wolves worked as a unit to clear the field. They were a wondrous beauty to watch, mesmerizing until the pigs attacked from a secondary position. All my focus turned as I shot. Levi was behind me, using the spear on anything that got close.
But the monsters kept coming and he dragged me toward the river like I was potatoes. The Blackfish followed, their long, shaggy black legs taking great strides as we dashed onto the ice.
It annoyed me, how they used claws for traction. The spikes tied to my feet came close to skidding before jolting when the metal points gripped and held. Levi screamed instructions I didn’t hear over the noise of inarticulate growls and pig grunts. My heart drummed against my ribs. Every ounce of strength flowing through me went into crossing the ice without falling.
The Blackfish fanned out, but Levi remained at my side. Beneath my feet and through the glassy surface, I saw moving shadows—either debris, floating in the current, or the shadows were my imagination. When I tasted blood, I realized I’d bitten my cheek and smeared my hand across my lips to wipe the mess away.
Pigs followed us out onto the ice, along with the crab-like creatures, the corrupted nymphs. They’d swarmed along with the pigs, and it didn’t matter that I hadn’t seen them before because I saw them now. Too many, with bodies climbing over bodies in a frenzy to get to us.
The Blackfish swirled, jaws snapping. Pigs charged, heads low, cloven hooves chipping hard into the ice, refusing to stop even when the first ominous crack shattered the air.
“Run!” Levi screamed at me.
“There!” I pointed with the bow toward the distant bank where Angel was tying ropes and tossing the ends out onto the ice.
A crack opened near my feet, zigzagging between fallen pigs and racing wolves. Ice chunks tipped. The turbulent current sloshed upward as the separations widened. The chunk of ice I stood on tipped. I ran, jumped and landed hard. That ice dipped until frigid water washed over half the surface.
I froze with my arms out for balance and the bow gripped in my hand.
“Come straight at me,” Levi ordered in his calm Pied Piper voice, even though his face was pale and his arms wavered for balance. The slab of ice beneath his feet was no more stable than mine, but he rocked with the movement while I fought against it.
“Don’t think, Noa. Imagine a line you’re going to walk and just do it, no stopping, not until I’ve got you.”
“If I go down,” I warned. “I’m fucking not drowning you, Levi.”
“No, you are fucking not, Noa.”
Somehow, I managed a laugh. “Laura would wash your mouth if she heard you.”
“She’s worse than me and pretends to be nice.”
The ice shifted. I took Levi’s advice and refused to think. “She’s got the hots for Anson,” I said as I moved my feet, a rapid scramble with the ice wobbling and dipping and my arms spread for balance. “How about him for a brother-in-law?”
