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)
“How much longer?” I ask my father, trying to keep the fear out of my voice.
“Not much more,” he says. “I know it’s a long slog, but we should be—”
He breaks off just as a low rumble starts to sound, the walls and ground shaking.
“What’s happening?” I cry out.
“A cave-in!” Tuoni yells.
“It’s them,” my father cries. “They’re making the tunnel collapse. Hanna, run! We’re almost there!”
My father reaches back and pulls me forward, pushing me past him. I start running, my father and Tuoni right behind me. The light from his lantern swings back and forth, my figure casting shadows on the rocks as we race along.
Dirt and rocks from the ceiling begin to fall, the ground still shaking, and yet, up ahead, I see it: a strange kind of glow.
“That’s the portal and the sea beyond! Keep going!” my father yells from behind me.
I run faster now, small rocks hitting my head as I go, and the portal gets closer and closer. It’s as if someone put a sheet of plexiglass at the end of the tunnel with an aquarium on the other side.
Tuonela.
Almost there.
Almost…home.
“Keep going!” my father yells again. “Run right through it; you’ll be fine!”
But then the rumble gets louder, the earth shaking so hard, I fall to the ground, and a large rock lands on my leg.
I cry out in pain and hear my father and Tuoni yelling.
The lantern light goes out.
I scream for them, but the rumble of the cave is too loud, and I know it’s going to bury us all.
“Keep going!” I hear Tuoni’s voice carry out. “Hanna, keep going!”
I get to my feet, limping along, and then run a few feet more until I’m pushing through the portal’s veil, the sensation like pushing through a bowl of jelly.
And then suddenly, I’m sucked through the rest of the way.
Submerged underwater.
Turning around in the sea just in time to see the portal behind me collapse.
Trapping my father and my husband inside.
“No!” I scream, but the sound is muffled by the sea as water pours into my lungs.
My husband had the magic that would let me survive this journey.
My husband is now buried in a tunnel at the bottom of the sea.
I’m starting to drown.
I do what I can to twist around and kick back down to the portal, to try and push through the veil, but my hands barely sink in, and all I see on the other side is dirt, like there was never a tunnel at all.
And then, my vision starts to fade.
My lungs burn, and I have no air. All I want is air, to breathe.
All I want is to live.
But I won’t live.
Because everything goes black.
Chapter 23
Lovia
The Half-Brother
Istare at the man, blinking, as he walks toward me on the Liekkiö Plains.
The smoke swirls around him, the flaming children in the distance coming closer and closer, but he doesn’t pay them any attention. All his attention is on me.
“Rasmus?” I say, my grip sweaty as it tightens around the hilt of my sword.
He grins at me. In some ways, he looks like a mere mortal, one I could easily picture being Hanna’s half-brother. That would be their father’s side.
But then there’s a glint in his eyes that doesn’t seem all that mortal to me. Wicked, perhaps a little deranged—that would be our mother’s side.
Considering he just put an arrow through the head of the Magician, there’s no doubt he’s Louhi’s son through and through.
Now I have to figure out what he wants from me, and fast.
“You should put down the sword,” he says, still approaching me like I’m a wild animal. “That’s no way to treat family.”
“You are no family of mine,” I tell him, moving the sword from side-to-side, flashing the metal at him. “Now, stay back if you know what’s good for you.”
“I know very well what’s good for you,” he says, reaching back and grabbing a bow from his quiver.
“I’m pretty sure your beloved mother would disown you if you were to kill me,” I tell him, flashing him the sword again.
“I’m not going to kill you,” he says. “Just disarm you.”
“You will never disarm me,” I growl back.
“Let’s try and see.” He sets the arrow into his bow and aims it at me.
I don’t have much time to react. The arrow flies through the air, and I raise my sword, my body moving faster than I thought possible.
The arrow collides with my sword with a ting! before flying off to the side.
Rasmus frowns, not expecting that, but he’s quick too, already loading another arrow. It fires at me, my sword deflecting the shot again just in time.
Then, it fires again, and I deflect it again, all while he’s slowly walking toward me, all while I’m slowly walking back. I don’t dare look over my shoulder to see if I’m about to stumble, nor to see how far I have to go to get to the safety of the Hiisi Forest. With the Magician still lying there, arrow to the face and motionless, I feel a deep sense of futility for the first time—like I truly am alone in the world, at least in this one, and no one is going to come and save me.