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“Not all of my ideas.” Frila laughed and thunder rumbled above. “Actually, it was not my idea at all.”
“Then whose?” I asked, taking a cautious step forward. Fearing to blink as if I’d miss her next move, I readied myself to hear the name of our grandmother, to confirm what we had always known.
“Take a wild guess,” Frila said, head bowing as her grin sliced across her face.
“Gildir,” Haldor said.
The ground swayed beneath my feet, sounds diminishing to a soft whisper as Haldor’s accusation settled over me.
“How fabulous, you got it in one!” Frila replied. “And I was hoping to play a little game to draw out this finale. Shame.”
I had to get to him.
Fire dripped from Haldor’s fingers, melting onto the wet ground at his feet. “It makes sense at least, sending you out to do all the hard work to ensure he benefits from whatever this is all for.”
Frila pouted. “Oh, brother, are you finally seeing that you are not grandmother’s favourite? Do not be too upset, will you?”
“Fuck you!” Haldor roared.
My head throbbed, skull aching as thoughts slammed within it. I took a step forward but the fizzing of Frila’s power popped across my skin in warning.
“Now, now, Faenir. Another step and I will be forced to see if you can survive my lightning. I have always wondered what would become of you in the face of my power.”
There was nothing else of importance but Arlo and the girl who stood between us.
“Go to him,” Haldor said, his words meant for me only. “I will deal with this one.”
Frila’s fingers tickled the air, and the winds whipped towards us. “Care for me to kill you the same way I did with your sweet little human? Want to feel what she had when I choked the air from her lungs?”
Haldor faltered.
“I would be careful with such claims,” I added, sensing the growing heat that spilled from Haldor’s presence.
“Claims?” Frila barked. “You have grown soft, Faenir. Gildir was confident you would kill Haldor’s human, but it seems compassion has weakened you. Your lack of action simply forced me to do what you could not.”
Haldor attacked without another word. He ran forward before my shadows could stop him. Frila welcomed him, bending her knees like a cat ready to pounce.Whips of pressurised fire grew from his fists. He lashed them out towards the place where she stood. Her laugh resounded through the winds, a warning that this was exactly how she wished for this encounter to go.
Haldor stopped dead in his tracks. His fire diminished as his hands clamped towards his throat. His head was thrown backward, mouth pulled open by unseen hands.
The conjured winds grew stronger. Wilder. I forced my way through them as Frila picked her brother up from the ground and dangled him in a web of her power, as though he were only a child’s doll. A burst of lightning cracked across the ground before me. Her shot was meant in warning, to keep me in place so I could do little but watch, all without paying much mind to me.
Frila focused solely on Haldor as she ripped the air from his lungs. The glow of life that encased him flickered. His feet kicked out beneath him, eyes bulging out of his skull as the whites turned blood-red.
I pushed on, trying to reach him. The shadows willed me forward, unable to break through the winds which roared between us. More lightning cracked. The ground burned. Hands raised before me, I pushed at the wall of air, trying to force myself through. My body had become leaden beneath her power. She kept me pinned in place, unable to do anything but watch.
“You. Shall. Not. Stop. Us!” Frila screamed, imprisoned by her deranged mind. “It is ours. OURS!”
Desperation clawed out my throat and fuelled my shadows forward. Dark fingers of my power reached out to Haldor.My attempt was futile.The golden light of Haldor’s life force spluttered. Before my eyes, it blinked out of existence and bathed him in the shadows of death.
Haldor’s arms dropped to his side, his neck falling at an awkward, sickening angle. Then he tumbled to the ground as Frila’s winds threw him carelessly. There was a moment of clarity that followed Haldor’s death, his shadows reached out for mine and joined as though we were one.
Frila, breathless, fell to her knees and clutched the ground. Not once did she take her wild eyes from the body laid out before her.Then she did something that sickened me.She cried.Eyes red and tears rolling freely down her face, she unleashed a howl that broke the storm apart.
The winds were amicable enough for me to walk freely. Frila did not take her eyes from Haldor’s body as I stood above her, my shadow falling across her small, hunched posture.
“Was it worth it?” I asked, kneeling before her. Part of me expected a fight, but the realisation of what she had done caused her to break into pieces upon the ground.
Frila did not look away or answer me. I watched the very understanding pinch her beautiful face into a mask of horror. Slowly, she peered up at me. I could only imagine what she must have seen, as my shadows spread like wings behind me.
