His breath came in a hard gasp as he fought the wolf for control.
A fireball flew from Pamela’s fingers and slammed into the first row of creatures along the top of the castle walkway. Bodies exploded, some landing on the giant who was only just now getting to his knees. The bodies that rained down on him didn’t seem to faze him. No, he reached down and grabbed half of a body from the ground and put it in his mouth, broken teeth digging into the still-twitching creature. The sound of his chewing was audible, even a half mile away, the snap of bones echoing across the open expanse of ground. The wolf in him retreated. If they were going to survive this, they would have to work together.
With Pamela.
The giant continued to pick at the bodies strewn about his feet, not yet seeing Rylee and Alex as they sprinted closer. Another volley of arrows came their way, and Alex let out another yelp, this one legitimate. A red-fletched arrow protruded from his shoulder, blood dripping from the feathers. Without breaking stride, Rylee reached down and yanked it out. Alex yipped and Liam growled at him. Right now they had to get past the damn giant; once they did that, Alex could whine all he wanted.
Pamela threw another couple of fireballs, which did two things. One, it took out another huge grouping of the creatures that by now were clearly visible—yet still unrecognizable—on the castle ramparts.
Two, her fireballs had drawn the attention of the giant.
Towering over them, he turned and gave out a gleeful cheer, clapping his hands together and stamping his feet as he saw them.
A garble of words poured from his mouth, along with a stream of saliva as he bent at the waist and scooped Rylee and Alex up in one big, dirty hand.
Liam skidded to a stop, his heart pounding out of control. This was not happening, he couldn’t lose her now.
“RYLEE!”
Liam screamed my name as the giant’s hand closed around us. Ignoring Liam was hard, but I had to. I had to focus. Before the log-sized fingers curled tight on me, I yanked my swords free and slashed upward with them, cutting through the giant’s fingers. Two fell off; two others were left hanging by tendons and ligaments, blood spurting out around us.
Squealing like a two-story stuck pig, the giant dropped us. Falling, I realized—belatedly—that we were a hell of a lot higher up than I’d thought. I hit the ground with a solid thud, and the crack of my ribs filled my ears as I slammed into a barely protruding rock. That was going to leave a mark. Alex rolled across the ground beside me, snarling up at the giant.
“Stinky nasty bugger. No touching Ryleeeeeeeee!”
Hands jerked me to my feet. “Rylee?” Liam was trying to help; I know he was. But I couldn’t breathe, and pain shot through my middle, a band of red-hot knives jabbing into me with each tiny bit of movement. I forced myself to shove him away, to stand on my own. If he knew how badly I was hurt, he’d try to carry me too.
“Go. We have to go,” I managed to gasp out.
Far too slowly for my taste, Liam led now, Alex limped along beside me, and somewhere in the next ten steps I found the ability to breathe again. Broken ribs were a bitch at any time, but when trying to outrun a massively hungry and fingerless peeved giant—well, let’s just say I could have done without.
The slam of the giant’s foot into the ground scooted us forward faster yet, and my ribs protested yet again, stealing my ability to breathe. We were just twenty feet from the open arch of the castle entrance way. Pamela pushed herself off Liam’s back and turned to face the giant. The look on her face was one I was beginning to know all too well.
Eyes narrowed, chin tipped up, she lifted her hands and flung them toward the giant. Two fireballs erupted from her fingertips, hitting the giant in the chest.
Damn, I wish I’d thought about that … nope, never mind. The giant patted the fire out, almost calmly, and then snarled at us. His jagged teeth had hunks of flesh and armor clinging to them, and from between them protruded a thick, long tongue that he used to clean his own face with in single lick.
“Fuck, that is nasty,” I spit out, along with a gob of blood. “Move it, Pam. Your fireballs are just pissing him off. Just get inside. I don’t think he can follow.”
“What? Why not?”
“Giants aren’t real smart and as soon as we’re out of sight, we’re out of mind.”
Gods, I hoped that my memory was right. Grabbing her by the arm, I ran as fast as my labored breathing would allow into what I hoped would be the safety of the castle.
Right, I’d forgotten for a moment about the creatures we’d not been able to identify, a part of me hoping Pamela had taken them all out.
The creatures that had been firing on us were not trolls or ogres.