My supply of rocks and insults exhausted, I bent down to check on Tristan and noticed the fine layer of dust and bits of rock coating him and me both. I looked up nervously and watched a cloud of dust rain down every time the sluag slammed against the rock. They were mindless creatures. Bent on the sole purpose of catching its prey, it might pull the rocks down upon us all.

Then over the racket the sluag was making, I heard a voice: “Tristan! Cécile!” It was Marc.

“Here!” I screamed. “We’re in here!”

“We’ve found them! Over here!” It was the sound of many voices and I breathed a sigh of relief. We were saved.

The sluag retreated from the entrance at the sound of the approaching trolls, but there was no chance for it to escape. The sound of its dying screams were deafening as dozens of long steel spears pierced its body. On hands and knees, I watched it collapse into a writhing heap before growing still. Marc’s face appeared in the entrance to our hiding spot. “Cécile?”

“Marc,” I croaked, my voice hoarse from yelling. “Tristan’s hurt.”

His eyes flickered past me to Tristan’s still form and his face paled. Pushing his way in, Marc knelt next to the Prince. “What happened?”

“The sluag stung him. We were running from it and then he…” A sob choked off the rest of my words.

Marc leaned his head against the wall and I could see the sorrow written across his fractured face. “Then he’s dead.”

“He isn’t!”

Angry eyes turned on me. “He will be soon enough. No one survives sluag venom.”

I cupped Tristan’s cheek and felt a whisper of breath against my hand. “You don’t know that.”

Marc grasped my arm and shoved me back. “He’s dying because of you!”

There was murder in his eyes and I shrank away from the closest thing I’d had to a friend in Trollus.

“This is your fault, Cécile,” he hissed. “He would have done anything for you, and this is how you repay him!” Power shoved me backwards like two hands pushing against my chest. “Get away from him.”

“You have no right to keep me from him,” I said. Immediately I knew I’d gone too far. Power pushed me out of the hole and I tripped, landing half on the body of the sluag. Marc came after me and I scrambled to my feet. He raised a hand to hit me, and I ducked my head under my arm and waited for the blow. It never came. I looked up and saw Marc standing frozen, his face twisted in fury. “I promised never to harm you,” he choked out. His eyes flicked to Vincent. “But you didn’t.”

The big troll shook his head sadly. “If he lives, he won’t forgive us for hurting her,” he said. “And frankly, I couldn’t forgive myself.” Then he looked at me. “If he dies, her head won’t stay on her shoulders for long.”