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How were there so many gobbelins in this place? Slowing to silent, careful steps, I drew my club and crept around the next corner, keeping as close to the rock wall as I dared.
A single gobbelin was standing a dozen feet ahead, back turned to me.
I waited a long moment, not seeing or hearing any other movement. Hopefully, it was alone, but I didn’t like how it was just standing there, like it was waiting for something.
My gut was screaming that something was off, but there was no other way out of this corridor.
I had to get past it, so I figured I’d do it as fast as possible.
Quickly, I called up the spell for my ice armor, hoping that it would just protect me without giving them any extra power, like Jillian’s ice magic had done. Raising the club above my head, I took a running leap toward the gobbelin, aiming straight for its temple.
At the last second, it ducked and pivoted, catching the handle of my club in a meaty hand and fixing me in a beady-eyed stare.
“Hello, princess,” he rasped. “How nice of you to deliver yourself.”
I wrenched the club from his grip and darted back, my heart sinking as three more gobbelins ambled through a passage ahead, grinning at me.
They’d beenwaitingfor me.
I’d walked straight into their trap like a fucking newbie moron. They must have seen me come through here to find Luca and Kas and gathered to corner me, or maybe they’d even been tracking me since last night.
A shadow fell across the corridor, and I glanced up to see four more gobbelins standing on the top ledge of the rock wall.
Another check in front of me revealed two more had come from another passage. It was a fucking ambush, and the only way out was through, because behind me was just the dead-end cave.
The first gobbelin grinned, taking a challenging stride forward, and I braced myself for the fight of my life.
Sending a brief warning message to Kas to stay away, I loosed a battle scream. Taking another running leap at the gobbelin, I switched hands in mid-air and took him by surprise long enough to smash in his skull.
I fought like a whirlwind, taking out one, two, four gobbelins.
But more and more swarmed me, scrambling down the labyrinth walls and bursting in from other corridors, surrounding me and pressing closer and closer.
I lost count as I fought, seeing more gobbelins than should be able to fit in the narrow corridor. The bodies piled up, but bit by bit, I was pushed backward until they’d trapped me against the cave.
I kept fighting, but a grim sort of knowing calm had overtaken me. My mind was focused on taking out gobbelins, but my heart was shutting down against the inevitable.
Every warrior had a final fight. Maybe this was mine.
My club failed first, then my knives cracked and broke. My ice armor faded away as my magic faltered, and finally, my final knife flew from my fingers.
Still, I fought.
Still, more gobbelins came at me.
Then a huge female locked eyes with me, pure hatred radiating from her. She charged at me, screaming wordlessly.
I felt the killing blow in slow, agonizing detail.
My head dropped down, and I saw the gaping hole in my chest where my heart should be, my blood pouring out of the wound.
My knees crumpled before the sea of greenish-gray creatures, each snarling and darting in to take their pound of flesh from my dying body.
And I prayed to every Goddess I knew that this was another trick of the mist and the Trials, because there wasn’t going to be a scrap of me left to find.
My eyes slid closed, and darkness took over.
The noise and the pain and even the regret ebbed away until nothing was left except my consciousness. My soul, pure and without emotion or physical senses.
