Page 191 of Veil of Blood and Bone

Bent in half, pain erupts down my spine all the way to my feet.

Those claws toss me away from the vehicle and frigid air burns every inch of exposed skin.

I land hard on my back and blink past the spots blotting my eyesight. I can’t breathe.

It comes down to timing.

Weather omens and frost giants. Scars and shifters.

Someone is screaming, and I can’t move my head.

Through blurred vision the creature stands as massive as a tank and leaning its weight on the car. The vehicle shakes, rattling on frozen wheels.

Dark whirlpools of smoke sift skyward and freeze, blown free by the wind.

I didn’t think it would hurt so much. Instead of a cushion, the snow is as hard as iron, seeping through my coat and jeans to soak me. My forearm throbs, and when I lift my hand, blood has already seeped through the scarf.

Pressure in my skull increases, and the invisible hand squeezing my heart pulls tighter.

My chest caves in between ragged spasms of breath, and my neck is bent at an odd angle to keep the frosted giant in my sight.

The light blue of old ice forms the beast’s body. Four legs, two rooted on the ground, one on the car, and one claw-tipped limb reaching for me.

Runes hum beneath its iced skin, and eyes as cold as the bowels of hell lock on mine.

A voice rumbles from its depths with an accent I can’t understand. They land in my brain, bounce, devastating.

The creature turns to me, and I angle the hairspray canister and press down on the lighter.

Something clicks.

It never catches.

A cry between a scream and a laugh bursts free, and the small measure of hope I’d allowed vanishes. That awful smile stretches, and sharp eyeteeth glints in dim light. Shadows circle near two pointed ears.

Its mouth forms the shape of words.

Audra slumps in the broken window, and I flick the lighter again, useless click after useless click sounding.

No, it can’t end like this.

I keep clicking as shadows stretch and wrap like a noose around the creature’s neck. A flicker of movement from somewhere above shows a glimpse of Nicholas, his trench coat flapping.

The beast doesn’t stop.

“Helene!” Audra’s voice is far away, tempered by the roar in my head.

The lighter only clicks as adrenaline clutches at my nervous system. Shadows pull tight. Another inch, another foot, teeth flashing⁠—

A ball of fire flares out from the can of hairspray and hits the creature dead center between the eyes.

It screeches and flounders. Shaking its head, it knocks into the car, sending us screeching backward. Losing its balance, it reverses course. Those talons wrench the door off its hinges and metal thuds against snow.

The thing stumbles away from the car, clutching the half melted side of its skull and the air fills not with the freshness of running water, but the stench of burned flesh.

What the hell?

How can a beast made of ice burn instead of melt?