Chapters (92)
“And what of me?” Noomi asked. Her hands had slowly fallen back to her side as we’d been speaking, and she stood taller, even when her chin quivered. “Are you ending me today or are you allowing me to fight alongside you?”
Dagny looked over at me, deferring to my judgment about the woman who had helped torture me during the Lost Month.
“I remember what you did,” I said, and she visibly gulped. “Not all of it. But enough to know that you’re a sadist, and you don’t deserve forgiveness.”
Noomi lowered her eyes and sniffled as a tear fell down her cheek.
“But life isn’t about what you deserve,” I said finally. “And we need anyone we can get to fight these fucking things.”
“You can join us,” Dagny agreed with a sigh. “But don’t make me kill you.”
76
Betrayals
Bryn
I only made it a few steps, leading Eliana by the hand, as we stepped over the bodies of Älvolk and allies alike. Some of them were even children, and I paused to make sure they were dead. I didn’t want to leave them behind if there was still hope.
“We shouldn’t stop,” Eliana said, frantically looking around while I crouched over a toddler whose burnt body had already gone cold. “It’s not safe.”
“Talking too loud isn’t safe,” I told her with an icy glance back over my shoulder. “Checking for survivors is prudent.”
Her jaw tensed and her mouth twisted into an irritable scowl.
“If we don’t help those that need help, we’re no better than the monsters,” I said.
She looked like she wanted to argue, but then her eyes widened when she looked past me. As I turned back, I already heard the slurping wet sound of the thick mucus trail the murder snail left behind.
It stretched its long neck outward, snapping at me with a narrow mouth of crooked fangs, and I leaned backward, grabbing Eliana’s arm as I did, pulling her down and out of the way, and I somersaulted back onto my feet.
Eliana ran away, leaving me to face the snail alone, but it was better that way. I remembered the way Tuva had screamed and writhed after the venom got her.
When the snail came at me again, I dodged to the side at the last second and swung my sword to quickly slice through the stalks that held up its big ginger-red eyes. Now blinded, its head moved erratically, and I had to move quickly to evade the gnashing teeth.
But it couldn’t see to block me, and it only took two strong blows to get through the neck and decapitate the murder snail.
I took a deep breath and ran on, after Eliana and toward the tent.