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 told the Magician I would protect him, and I didn’t.
I don’t even think I can protect myself.
“I can stop, you know,” Rasmus says. “All you need to do is put down the sword and come with me, sister.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I counter just as he fires another arrow at me, which I block just in time. Damn it, how many of them does he have?
“That was never an option,” he says as he raises his arm in a dramatic fashion and points at me. “Saada!” he commands.
Suddenly, all the flaming murdered children wail again in unison, their tiny mouths snapping as the inhuman, haunting sounds fill the air. They start running toward me. There must be at least twenty of them, and at first, I think I might be able to stay and fight them off, but then I look over my shoulder and see how close the forest is.
I take my chances. Once past the wards, I’ll be safe.
I turn and run as fast as I can, knowing that though the little fire spirits are fast, they are still children, and I’m faster, with a head-start.
Thwack.
I hear the arrow at the same time I feel it.
My right leg explodes in pain, as if it’s been torn off at the knee, and I collapse to the ground in a heap, rocks cutting my palms as I try to break my fall, red dirt smearing up my elbows.
I try to hold back a scream, but it comes out as an anguished cry. I am in pure agony; I can barely breathe through it, and I know if I don’t ignore it, it will become the death of me.
I twist around and look at my leg, at the arrow sticking out of my calf, the blood dripping onto the dirt. Right behind me is the swarm of flaming children coming to kill me, and behind them, the figure of Rasmus striding through the dark mist.
No, I can’t die here.
I grab my sword and manage to get to one knee, turning around to face the children. The closest one to me, a little girl with missing eyes and teeth and roaring flames for hair, jumps at me. I swipe my sword across her while she’s in mid-flight, severing her body in two.
Another child flings themselves at me, and I quickly bring the sword across their neck, moving just in time to do the same to another. I try to get to my feet, but my leg howls in pain, and I have to drag it across the dirt to get more distance between me and the Liekkiö, unable to use my sword in close combat.
More come at me now, jumping onto my shoulders, pulling my hair and bringing me down to the ground. I kick and scream, flames burning me, and I watch in horror as Rasmus appears just a few feet away, the arrow in his bow nocked and aimed right at my head.
“I’ll call them off,” he says with an acidic smile. “You just have to come with me.”
I grind my teeth together and growl in response, knocking a child’s skull off their body with a throw of my elbow, the flames licking my skin, glancing down to kick another one that’s grabbed hold of my foot in the face.
But when I look back up, Rasmus is no longer holding the bow.
And he’s no longer alone.
There’s someone behind him, holding an arrowhead, the sharp point pressed against the side of Rasmus’ neck, enough that it has drawn a trickle of blood.
The hands are gloved, the arms robed.
The Magician!
His galaxy face appears just behind Rasmus.
“Didn’t you know that you can’t kill the universe?” the Magician says.
Rasmus snarls and tries to twist away from the arrow’s tip, just as another child skeleton lunges for me. I kick the kid in the chest, breaking ribs and sending them backward while Rasmus tries to fight the Magician off.
The Magician moves back, waving his hands in a sweeping manner, and suddenly, long, pale tendrils shoot out of the ground at Rasmus’ feet and wrap around his legs with startling ferocity.
Rasmus yelps and tries to move after the Magician, but the tendrils move like lightning, snaking up his legs, around his waist, to his arms, holding him in place.
Mycelium, I think just as another child hurls itself at me.
But now, the Magician is coming toward me, waving his arms in an outward manner as more of the mycelium reaches outward from the earth, wrapping around the Liekkiö until they’re entirely covered in a throbbing network of fungi fibers. The mycelium shoot inside their skulls like a living nightmare, choking the incessant screams right out of them.
Then, the Magician comes over to me and reaches down, grabbing me by the elbows and hoisting me up to my feet.