Better yet, I had saved us both—withnomagicrequired!
Exhilaration flooded my bruised body as I pushed myself to my feet, ignoring all of my aches and twinges along the way. “Well, then!” I smiled sunnily at my ex-fiancé, who stood three feet away from me, carefully brushing down his elegant greatcoat. “Now that I’ve solved that little problem, we can leave our friend to sleep for another century or two,and…”
A sound like thunder rumbled ominouslynearby.
Snow continued to fall around us, soft-looking, white and steady without any hint of rain in sight. Wrexham’s head jerked up as I fellsilent.
Both of us turned in the same moment to face the crouching troll. I took one nervous stepbackward.
It wasn’t farenough.
The thunder built into a deafening roar as the troll surged upright in one explosive movement that sent rubble and boulders flying through the air. I turned to run, already knowing it was toolate.
Before I could take a single step, Wrexham knocked me to the ground, his voice snapping out as his arms wrapped around me. His words were lost in the roar of sound that surrounded us, but the effect was impossible to miss, even with my view half-blocked by hisshoulder.
The boulder that had been aiming straight in my direction hung in mid-air for one paralyzed moment before dropping harmlessly to the ground. More and more rubble hit the same invisible wall before giving up and raining onto the ground beforeus.
I said, my voice reasonably steady given the circumstances, “Thatwas a rather more powerful protection spell than Lord Cosgrave set on meearlier.”
“A sign that he hasn’t spent nearly enough time with you, clearly.” Wrexham levered himself up onto his elbows, craning his head to peer up through the flying clouds of rubble. “I don’t believe your friend up there is actually trying to attack us at the moment, just shake itself free. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to make my protection spell portable, so we’ll have to remain here for theduration.”
“Hmm.” It might be reasonable to grant even the most accomplished magician the benefit of the doubt when he’d been forced to cast a spell at a moment’s notice, in the midst of deadly peril. Andyet…
I gave my ex-fiancé a suspicious look. Now that the immediate peril had passed, I could finally take note of our position...and with his arms braced on either side of my head, he covered me entirely, radiating warmth through his greatcoat in the most distractingmanner.
Ihadthought, once upon a time, that we fitted together perfectly. But I had never before had the chance to test that theory quite soliterally.
What nonsense.I shifted beneath him, trying to ease the disconcerting tingling sensations that were suddenly running throughme.
Unfortunately, that movement only made them more intense. My breath was coming more quickly than before. I moistened my lips and fixed my gaze on the underside of his stubborn chin, just above me, to distract myself from other, more dangerous regionsnearby.
Most of his throat, of course, was covered by his cravat, but the bits of light brown skin that were exposed looked perilously soft and touchable—almost as soft as the tips of glossy black hair that curled against the thick collar of his coat. If I lifted onehand...
No.I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing my recalcitrant body into submission. The time for allowing myself to be distracted by Wrexham’s physical presence was long past. I had not only given up that dream, I had thrown it away with both hands, and with the most vicious repudiation I could manage. If he realized how I was reacting to him now, after all that had passed between us, I would be humiliatedforever.
Andthatrealization was enough to make me stiffen like a board. My eyes snapped open. “I would have thought,” I said sharply, “that all those years of working for the Boudiccate would have given you the ability to calculate the details of your spells moreprecisely.”
“Oddly enough,” said Wrexham, still gazing upwards, “in all those years, I’ve never before been in a situation where you were about to be killed in front of me…at least not when I could actually prevent it.” For a moment, his voiceflattened.
I went still, remembering it too. He had been the one who’d found me four months ago, stepping into my workroom barely a moment too late, just as the spell caught me in itsgrip...
But then he shook his head, and his lips twisted into a rueful grin as he finally looked down at me, his gaze alarmingly focused and intent. “Although…if I’d ever hoped for a single moment when you were forced to stop running and actuallylisten—”
“Oh, I think not,” I said, and twisted out from underneath him. “The rubble’s stopped falling,” I told him as I pushed myself swiftly to my feet, breaking through the bubble of his protective spell. “So it’s perfectly safe to start movingagain.”
Wrexham muttered something under his breath. But I chose not to try to decipher his words as I took three perfectly calm and composed—and rapid—steps away from his pronefigure.
There. Now I could breathe again. More than that, I couldthink.
The troll was looming over us, vast and rocky and unmoving, with its heavy stone arms hanging at its sides. I tipped my head back to peer up at it through the veil of snow and found it gazing down atme.
Its massive mouth opened. A gravelly, throaty roar emerged, as deep as thunder but a hundred timeslouder.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pain battered my head and the earth shook beneath my feet as the troll’s roar echoed around the hills. I threw out my arms for balance, fighting to stay upright within that wall of nearly impenetrablenoise...
But in the midst of it all, I could just make out a set of words I recognized in the rolling Densk that my brother had taught me so many yearsago:
