AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The giant roars.
I run forward and slide between its legs, grabbing Lacrae as soon as I can and yanking him to his feet. We run, sprinting toward a large boulder before the giant turns around. There, we hide, cowering beneath a snow-capped stone while the rest of our army disperses and the giants make their way down the hill.
“Did you tell them?”
Lacrae nods.
“How many survived?” My thoughts fall to Navalis. To the numbers we lost there when it was just an army of Tenebris. What if the giants kill them all?
“I do not know. We will discover soon enough,” Lacrae replies, peeking out from behind the rock. “We need to get out of here.”
“Not without Carleah and Fort. Dead or alive, I won’t leave them here to rot.” Tears burn my eyes. I treated my sister so horribly, and now I might have no time to continue making it up to her.
Lacrae doesn’t argue. He slips out from beneath the rock, and we race toward the hill where Carleah and Fort were last seen. A gaping hole has been opened further, crumbled rock and ice creating a slide down into the darkness.
Heart hammering, I peer over the top. “Carleah!” I call out. I wait a heartbeat. Then another. Until a bloody Carleah comes into view.
I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding even as fury burns me at the sight of my sister’s face. Blood crusts to a large gash on her cheek. The crimson crystals shine in the sun, and I slide down the side of the mountain and crush her against me.
“Your face,” I say as I study her cheek.
“I’m fine. But Fort—” she chokes his name out, and grief snuffs out what hope I had.
I leave Carleah and follow Lacrae around the side of a large boulder. Fort sits still, propped against the stone. His arms are limp at his sides, his legs out in front of him.
“He dove in after me and broke my fall,” Carleah says.
“You wonderful bastard,” I reply, my respect for him growing even more. How did my family get so lucky as to have such an honorable man fighting on our side? How did I get so lucky as to have such a man love my sister? “Are you going to survive?”
“If the blood in my veins does what it’s supposed to, yes. But it’s certainly taking a long time.”
“You broke your back,” Lacrae tells him. He looks up at me, golden gaze full of concern. “He can’t walk.”
My answer is an easy one. “Then we’ll have to carry him.”
