Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
I go to the duffel bags and wonder if Tuoni’s mask, which he still has with him, can be weaponized somehow.
But out of the corner of my eye, I see something moving.
I suck in my breath and look over at the field where Tuoni threw Eero, wondering if the northern lights are manipulating me into seeing things, but they aren’t.
Eero’s body is moving.
His leg is twitching.
Is it possible for the body to be in death’s throes right after having its neck snapped in half?
Maybe…
But then an arm moves.
Then the other arm.
Slow, deliberate movements.
And then I watch in pure horror as Eero slowly sits up, his head hanging off him.
I scream.
“Hanna!” I hear Tuoni yell from inside the cave.
But I can’t take my eyes off Eero, watching as he slowly gets to his feet, his head swinging back and forth, and his eyes—oh God, his eyes—they’re watching me.
I’m going to vomit.
“Tuoni!” I scream, still unwilling to take my eyes off the zombie. “Eero isn’t dead! He isn’t dead!”
I hear rocks scraping behind me and turn around to see Tuoni climbing out of the fissure, dragging a dirty-looking woman out with him. He throws her to the side, where she lands in a heap in the snow, a knife in her throat, blood staining the snow red.
Noora.
It would be another traumatic sight to witness, but so far, it doesn’t hold a candle to Eero, who is slowly shuffling across the field toward us, his mouth snapping and making gurgling noises.
And now, Tuoni sees him too.
“What the fuck?” he breathes. “Is this magic? How can Shaman magic defeat the God of Death?” He looks down at Noora and quickly takes off his glove, grabbing her bare hand. “If this doesn’t kill her, nothing will.”
But then Noora’s eyes fly open.
She opens her mouth, and blood pours out, gathering around her, and her hands try to grab the knife from her throat.
She’s not dead either.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I look at Tuoni, my mouth dropping open. “No one dies!” I cry out. “We were right! No one can die while you’re in this world!”
“Well you better get your butts to the Underworld then!” my father yells, poking his head out of the cave. He looks at Noora, then Eero, eyes growing wide. “Now!”
Quickly, Tuoni grabs the knife from Noora’s throat and stabs her in both eyes, her eyeballs exploding like red grapes.
“There,” he says, putting his hand on my shoulder and pushing me toward the cave. “That should at least slow her down.”
I nearly choke trying to stop the vomit from coming up as I’m forced down between the rocks, slipping into the cave, my feet dangling into nothingness.
Until someone grabs my legs.
I let out a muffled cry before I realize it’s my father helping me down to the next rocks. “Are you okay?” he asks me.
“Are you okay?” I ask back.
He brings out his flashlight, his face bruised but otherwise fine. “I am if you are.”
Am I?
My husband just snapped a man’s neck in half and then stabbed a woman in both her eyeballs, I want to say, but I guess I’ll just wait for that trauma to pop up later at a completely innocuous time.
He pats my shoulder and then helps me climb down a few more rocks while Tuoni quickly comes in after me.
“We need to move,” Tuoni says. “The faster I’m in Tuonela, the quicker they will die for good this time. And I don’t want them going through the portal with us.”
My father nods and hurries off. “This way.”
I follow quickly, Tuoni close behind me. The tunnel goes down for a bit, but then as it levels out, the walls start to get narrower, until my shoulders are brushing against them. The light from my father’s lantern shows nothing but black dirt walls, and even then, it seems to be swallowed up by the darkness.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Tuoni says from behind me. “I didn’t mean to get so violent.”
“Yes, you did,” I tell him. “You’re the God of Death. That’s what you do. And if I’m the Goddess of Death, I better get used to it.”
Not that I could ever get used to that.
“Good girl,” he says under his breath. “I think you’re become more and more suited to me with each passing day.”
I smile faintly at that. As much as I love it when he calls me a good girl, though, I can’t let myself think about anything until we get out of this cave system. The longer I’m down here, the more I’m starting to panic. How much longer until we reach the sea? What if Noora and Eero go into zombie mode and run after us? How do we stop them from killing us down here if they themselves can’t be killed?
I suppose we might not be able to be killed either, but there’s no way I want to test that theory out, not here.