Using her sword to fight trolls was the last thing Elora ever expected to do in her life. No, less than the last thing, because she never even knew trolls existed.
The troll they had first encountered, the one with the yellow teeth, snarled at her from the center of the group. She ignored that troll and raced toward one who stood on the end. It had green-tinged skin and enormous hands and feet like the first troll. Instead of an axe, it wielded a long knife. Its bushy blackish-green hair formed a puffy circle around its head.
Elora stared the troll down as she ran toward it. When the creature swung its knife, her feet moved quickly to dodge the blow. Knowing the troll expected her to keep running forward, Elora veered to the side and ran around the trunk of the nearest ice tree.
The shaking ground indicated the troll had come after Elora. But the troll’s huge feet made it slow and easy to outrun. While it chased her, she sped up.
Using the increased momentum, she managed to run a few steps up the side of the tree trunk. Warnings about the dangerous ice encasing the tree rang in her head, but the boots on her feet seemed to protect her from it.
As soon as she had gotten as high as she could manage, the troll came crashing near. Elora jumped onto the troll’s back.
The knife-wielding troll let out a wet grunt that sounded a little like a hiss. With a single shake of its back, Elora dropped to the icy ground with a crunch.
When she got to her feet, she caught a glimpse of Brannick’s eyes. He’d never opened them so wide.
She responded with a flippant shrug. “You said to have fun, right?”
The prince let out a chuckle. Her words seemed to give him an idea. He grabbed fistfuls of snow and chucked them into the face of the troll’s nearest to him. With a wink, he said, “As much fun as possible.”
The trolls did not like that one bit. But Elora was laughing now, and she didn’t care.
A knife swung toward her, and she dodged it with absolutely no grace at all. Breaking out into another run, she decided to try the tree climbing trick again. She slammed her sword into its sheath.
After gaining momentum, she took several steps up the side of an ice tree. Pushing off against it, she jumped onto the back of the nearest troll. This one had stringy brown hair growing out of its pointy ears. Its skin was cold to the touch.
The troll let out a growl and shook its back every which way. Better prepared than the first time, Elora gripped its shoulders hard enough to stay in place. While the troll shook itself, its axe swung right into the arm of a fellow troll.
The injured troll let out a bark and shoved the troll with the ear hair. It took greater effort to hold tight while the troll stumbled backward. For a moment, she could focus on nothing but holding herself in place.
Finally, the troll steadied itself, and she could glance at her surroundings. Brannick had just jumped onto the back of another troll, this one with sunken eyes. The prince whipped his head back and offered a charming grin. “Lovely atmosphere, isn’t it?”
She chuckled and offered a deliberate nod.
Ear hair from her troll poked through her skirt. It let out a grunt and reached backward, trying to snatch her off its back. After dodging a few times, the troll managed to grip onto her sheath hanging from her belt.
The sheath wasn’t special, but she didn’t want the troll getting her sword. Afraid to lose it, she pulled the sword from its sheath. She reached it across the troll’s throat, holding it tight against its green skin.
Despite the weight she put behind it, the troll’s skin was still too thick for the sword to penetrate. Even so, the troll started jumping from one foot to the other, letting out little yelps.
After she held the sword to its neck for another few moments, the skin started sizzling. Smoke drifted away from the sword in twisty clouds.
She let out a gasp and moved the sword away from the troll’s throat.
“Don’t stop!” Brannick’s head bounced as his troll jumped up and down, trying to get him off its back. “Your sword can’t slice through its skin, but the iron will burn it.”
A puff of air escaped her lips. “Iron? What does—”
“Iron is a fae weakness.” The prince’s voice ended in a high pitch as he nearly lost grip of the troll he was riding.
It didn’t seem likely that something as simple as iron could hurt creatures with skin too thick for swords. But half a dozen trolls were in the middle of trying to kill her, so it probably wasn’t the time to question things.
Her sword went back across the troll’s throat.
While her troll continued to sputter and jump, Brannick seemed to get better control of his. He gripped the troll by its green shoulders and forced it to lean to the side. In response, the troll veered to the side until it ran into a fellow troll.
She held her sword tight against her troll while raising one eyebrow. “I thought you couldn’t hurt the trolls.”
He forced his troll to veer a second time before grinning. “I can’t attack the trolls. But I’m clearly just having fun.”
Without warning, a green hand gripped her by the waist and yanked her toward the ground. When she raised her sword to attack, the troll with brown ear hair ran off into the forest instead.
Brannick called after it with a surprisingly cavalier voice. “That’s what happens when you fight against the prince of Bitter Thorn.”
Just as the final words escaped his lips, his troll slammed him against the nearest ice tree. The impact caused several chunks of ice to loosen and fall from the tree. Elora had to move quickly to avoid being hit by them.
The prince let out a grunt that seemed to indicate he was more injured than he wanted to let on. “You think you’re clever, do you, troll?”
After sucking in a deep breath, the prince jammed his elbow into the tree trunk. The ice made a glittery noise as chunks of it broke free from the branches. Even before they fell, Elora knew she’d never be able to avoid them all. Brannick must have realized at the same moment because he quickly shouted, “Watch out!”
At her side, the wolf yipped at her softly. She started at its sudden appearance. It must have used the same glamour as before to hide itself from the trolls.
Knowing she couldn’t save herself, Elora shielded the wolf’s body while the ice chunks showered down. When the ice landed on her bare arms, she couldn’t help screaming. Every spot where it touched her skin burned with a needle-like pain. In almost the same instant, the pain started spreading through every part of her body.
Though her hand still dripped with blood from the troll bite, the pain from the ice completely drowned out all sensation of her other injury. Just when the pain seemed strong enough to kill her, the stones against her wrist began to warm.
Since she’d been wearing a glamour that hid her true clothing, she had nearly forgotten about the ward necklace from Kaia. The leather string around her wrist seemed to soak up the pain, drawing it back and out of her.
For a few moments, even breathing seemed like too great a task. When she managed to take a few calming breaths, she glanced up.
Two of the trolls had disappeared, but four of them still remained. The one with Brannick on its back did not look happy, but the other three trolls looked even angrier. The first troll they had encountered had a drop of blood sliding down its brown lips. All of them were closing in on Brannick.
She rushed over, but her body wouldn’t move as quickly as it usually did. The troll holding Brannick managed to pluck him off its back and slam him against the frozen ground. The moment he touched the ground, weapons started flying.
Before she could reach him, the yellow-toothed troll swung its axe. It sliced through the prince’s leg, causing a deep gash. By the time another weapon swung, her sword caught it midair.
She moved her sword quickly, using every trick her father had taught her. But tricks couldn’t help when her strength was failing her. Her muscles burned each time she lifted her sword. Swinging it caused knots to shoot through her arms.
No matter how she tried to focus on the fight, the irony of it kept bouncing to the forefront of her mind. Hadn’t she asked for an adventure? Good thing she had been so eager to escape a boring life because now this adventure might kill her.
Stupid fae bargains.
The prince let out a groan that was probably supposed to sound like a word. Had he really been so injured that he couldn’t talk? One of the trolls prepared to swing its axe, but before the weapon fell, Brannick pointed at the horizon behind the trolls.
They all turned at once, but nothing was there except a few tiny rays of light peeking through iridescent clouds. When Elora glanced back, the prince’s hand shook from trying to keep it in the air. It fell against him like he couldn’t control it anymore.
What would happen to her bargain if the prince died and she couldn’t rescue him? The bargain had prevented her from trying to do anything other than rescue him. But if he died, would she be free of the bargain? Or would the bargain kill her too?
The sound of troll feet stole her attention away from her questions. Three of them bounded deep into the forest. They tripped over their feet as they went, but they still moved faster than should have been possible for creatures so large.
Only one troll remained now. The yellow-toothed troll who had bit her hand bared its teeth, snarling at the pair of them.
Brannick sucked in a shuddering breath. She glanced back to see dark blood pouring from the gash in his leg. He spoke, but each of his words seemed to cost him. “If you don’t run for your cave, troll, the sun will turn you to stone.”
That only intensified the troll’s glare. It swung its axe at the prince. With a swift slice, Elora blocked the blow with her sword. But then her arm gave out from the exhaustion. She let out a huff and tried to block the prince from the troll’s view.
The axe swung again, this time at her. She dodged it, but her body couldn’t move the way she needed it to. Despite ducking, the axe left a small scratch on her arm. From behind her, the prince’s coat seemed to rustle.
She glanced back at him and sucked in a breath at the sight of Prince Brannick shivering hard.
The troll stepped forward with a sneer. It eyed Elora’s neck like the featured dish at a banquet. She took an angled step backward to move away from the troll but also to avoid stepping on the shivering prince.
With a swipe of one hand, the troll tried to grab her around the waist.
Her feet moved backward automatically. One deep breath would have to be enough to prepare her. After it, she lifted her chin. “You’re that hungry, are you?” She returned her sword to its sheath.
“No, don’t…” The prince’s voice came out weak. He seemed unable to finish his sentence.
Maybe he wouldn’t like it, but she ignored him. Her eyes narrowed as she leaned closer to the troll. “Come and get me.”
The prince let out a moan that sounded vaguely like a protest. The troll laughed with a guttural noise that sounded more like a cough. It reached and grabbed her around the waist with a powerful grip.
The creature brought her close to its body, as if to crush her with the force of its arms.
Brannick let out a pained sigh. “Stupid mortal.” He coughed, though it sounded more like a grunt. “She could have been useful to us if she had survived.”
Stars burst beneath Elora’s eyelids as the troll squeezed her body. She wriggled against its grip only slightly. She just had to get at the right angle. The troll squeezed harder, and the last puff of air escaped her.
Still, her plan would work if she could just get the troll to move his elbow out just a little more.
The prince let out a moan.
Elora tried sucking in a breath but to no avail.
Pushing against the forceful arms, she managed to grab hold of the thin dagger under her corset.