Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 125422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
With a powerful shove, she throws me off. I skid across the platform, coming to a stop just before the edge. She rises, her wings flaring again. I scramble to my feet, readying my blade for one final attack.
But she is too fast. She swoops in, her clawed hand catching me by the throat. With a mighty heave, she lifts me off the ground and hurls me over the edge.
The wind rushes past me as I fall, the castle walls a blur of stone and shadow.
My mind races, a single thought burning through the chaos.
This is the end.
But then, just as suddenly as I fell, I stop.
Something catches me with a thump that knocks the wind out of me, and I quickly wrap my arms around a warm, thick neck, hanging on tight, a mane blowing in my face.
Large wings beat steadily as Sarvi’s voice cuts through the wind. Hold on!
“Sarvi!” I cry out. “You’re alive.”
Why wouldn’t I be? Sarvi says. But I’ll have to make this quick because my strength isn’t what it used to be.
Relief floods through me as the unicorn quickly rises through the sky, lifting me back toward the platform. Louhi’s expression shifts from triumph to fury as she sees us ascend. She dives toward us, her blade gleaming.
Sarvi twists, avoiding her strike, but Louhi quickly flaps her wings, propelling her up so that she lands on the unicorn’s back right behind me, her claws digging into the hide. Sarvi lets out a cry of pain, wings faltering as we fall through the sky until we’re aloft again. I reach back and grab hold of Louhi’s arm, pulling with all my strength, but she slams me backward, pinning me against Sarvi’s flank.
I reach for my sword, but it’s gone—lost in the chaos. Louhi’s blade rises, aimed for my heart.
“Should have known the God of Death wouldn’t die easily,” she snarls, her eyes blazing with victory. “Luckily I’m not a quitter.”
I grin at her. “Neither am I.”
With a final, desperate act, I tear off my glove with my teeth and reach for her. My bare hand meets her throat, and she freezes as I start to squeeze her neck. Her wings stiffen, her eyes widening in shock.
My touch is death itself, the end of all things.
And, oh, have I longed to use it on her.
Louhi’s body braces as I strangle her, her shadows unraveling. She lets out a piercing scream as her form begins to disintegrate, her essence fading into the wind. She tries to claw at me, to fight back, but it’s too late. She crumbles into ash, the sinister mire of her soul snuffed out and floating away into nothing.
She’s finally gone.
Good fucking riddance.
I collapse against Sarvi’s back, my chest heaving. All is silent except for the sound of the wind and Sarvi’s beating wings as we fly back to the castle.
“It’s over,” I whisper.
For now, Sarvi replies, their voice low and pricked with fear. Hanna freed me and Lovia from the library, made me leave to help you, but I fear she’s fighting Salainen now.
“Hurry,” I command. “We don’t have a second to waste.”
CHAPTER 39
HANNA
We sprint through the hallowed halls of Shadow’s End, our footsteps echoing against the stone. The air is heavy, laden with the scent of damp rot and old magic, not at all the way I remember it.
My home. This used to be home, more so than California, Finland, or any place I lived in the Upper World. And now Louhi has taken it from me, from Tuoni, from everyone.
I growl to myself, hoping, praying, that he’s able to defeat Louhi. It took everything in me to not go after him to help, but I know that rescuing Lovia was his priority and I’m sure she’s heavily guarded. Still, I worry. My Goddess side is retreating, letting my emotions out in full force, and right now the anxiety is drowning me. I would give my left tit for some lorazepam right now.
But Tuoni is counting on me as much as I’m counting on him.
So I lead the way, Vellamo close at my side. My father grips his staff behind us, his chants a low murmur as he strengthens our path with wards against whatever dark forces might try to snare us. I’ve told him several times that he should hang back, watch for any attackers, but my old man is as stubborn as I am and so he’s right behind me.
As is Tellervo, General Suvari, the Magician, and the remaining trolls and troops that form a tight group around us, weapons at the ready. Rauta darts ahead, his nose to the ground, growling softly as if he senses danger in every shadow.
We push onward, deeper into the heart of the castle, toward the Library of the Veils. I can feel its pull, a strange hum in my bones, like a chord struck in a hollow chamber. The library is repository of souls and lost knowledge, and, for now, our best hope of finding Sarvi and Lovia. I can feel it.