Chapter 27

This demon. I swore to the fates above that if he didn't listen to me, I was going to have to throw some moss cakes at him to knock some sense into him. It was like he couldn't see the truth of his own lessons. Ever since the day we'd met, he'd been telling me to believe. Believe in my own strength, believe in my own smarts, believe in my own skills.

Not only that, but he knew how curses worked. It was all about acceptance, too. He needed to accept what he'd done, stop believing he was going to destroy everything, and get his bloody arse out of that cave so he could sweep me off my feet and spend the rest of his life with me.

I let my annoyance fuel me. There was an incredible amount of rocks between me and him, and some of them were quite large. I had to admit, I had my task cut out for me. There was a distinct possibility I could hurt myself trying, though I wouldn't tell him that until he was out of there.

The situation was this: there were two boulders—both about the size of me—squeezing together and forming a triangle with a boulder so large I'd dismissed it from my consideration. It wasn't going to move, no matter how much I believed in myself. I'd already moved quite a lot of smaller rocks out of the way, but dozens more were piled on top of the big boulders. If I didn't move them first, they'd collide with my head. And I didn't think that'd be particularly enjoyable.

But instead of crying about it, I just got to work. First up, I had to hoist myself up to the top of the boulder, where all the smaller rocks were. The rough surface scratched my palms, and my knees throbbed with pain from knocking against the stone. With only a couple of footholds, it was more of a scrabble than what I'd call a climb, but I eventually made it up there.

At the top, I grabbed a handful of rocks and started lobbing them across the cavern. It made quite a lot of noise, the plunks and plops echoing like the chorus of a hundred pickaxes. If the dragon was back in her lair and hadn't known someone was out there, she did now.

Hours passed like this. I had to take a lot of breaks. While I was a lot bloomin' stronger than I'd ever let myself believe, I was still just me without any enhanced shadow demon powers to keep me going for hours on end. I took a rest after a while, staying on top of the boulder. I'd made a big enough dent in the rocks to form a seat of sorts. But one moment's rest turned into two. And soon, I was drifting to sleep.

Iwas awoken to the sound of scrabbling. The click, click, clink of needles pierced through my veil of exhaustion, and as I blinked open my eyes, a jolt of shock went through me at the heavy darkness. For a moment, I tried to make sense of my surroundings. I wasn't at home, where the steady glow of sunstones illuminated my bed even in the deepest part of the night. In fact, this wasn't a bed at all. A hard rock jammed into my back.

Sucking in a breath, I sat up straight, and it all came flooding back to me.

Tormund needed me to dig him out of his makeshift cave, and I'd fallen asleep!

Bloomin' fates. When we got through this, he would never let me hear the end of it.

Speaking of hearing…that clicking sound grew louder. It sounded like thousands of miniature pickaxes knocking against the ground. I frowned and squinted into the darkness. It couldn't be the dragon. She'd light up the whole room with her internal fire glowing beneath her scales.

So, what in fate's name could it be?

"Hello?" I called out.

More scrabbling answered. This time, it sounded like needles against metal rather than stone.

"The mine carts," I said in a gasp.

Whatever was happening, it was happening to our beloved carts with all the food and supplies we needed to gain access to the dragon's treasure. Something—or someone—was in here trying to get to it.

"Oh no you don't," I said through gritted teeth. And then, before I could think it through, I slid down the side of the boulder. A cry curdled in my throat as I flailed in the air, arms and legs swinging like flags getting twisted in a particularly harsh breeze. My hair smacked my face, and a loud rip rent the air where my trousers got caught on the rock.

I hit the ground. Feet first, surprisingly. Gods, I was a mess. I reached around behind me to feel the extent of the damage to my trousers—and my pride, if I had to meet the dwarves of Rockheim like this—but I didn't get a chance to contemplate the severity of the rip.

Because spiders scuttled out of the darkness, surrounding me.

"Hmm."

There were well over a dozen of them. It was impossible to tell their numbers in the darkness. They looked a lot like my old friend, Daisy, though I didn't spot him in their midst. We were quite far from his favorite haunts, so he'd likely never even met this crowd. They might not be quite as friendly as him.

Several of them inched closer, their pincers clicking.

I held up my hands. "Listen. I'm just here passing through. I'm sorry if we've made a mess of your den, but we'll clean it all up." Perhaps I shouldn't have been aimlessly lobbing rocks everywhere. "No need for any, erm, consuming, if you get my meaning."

One of them cocked his head, his bulbous eyes glowing with hunger.

"Astrid," Tormund called out through the rubble, "please tell me you're not out there speaking to a spider."

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that," was my response.

A tortuous pause followed. "Is it the friendly one you tried to feed me to?"

"That would imply there was only one of them out here," I said, laughing in hopes it would release the tension in my shoulders.

"Right." His voice went sharp. "Get out of here and save yourself."

I watched the spiders, their pincers going wild. They scrabbled around the mine carts and poked at the contents. It seemed they realized it was something interesting but didn't quite know what to do with it.

"I think they're just hungry," I yelled.

"Don't you dare feed them any moss cakes," Tormund said. "Those are for the dragon."

"You have a lot of opinions for someone who wanted me to leave him behind a moment ago."

"You're damn right I do. Take the carts, run to the dragon lair, and make your bloomin' cakes."

I promptly ignored him.

"Hello, spiders," I said, approaching the oversized beasts. Surprisingly, they scrabbled away from me, like they were afraid I might hurt them. I couldn't help but smile. See? They were only hungry. "I'd like to offer you a deal. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

The answer was some tip-tapping of pincers on stone. I took that as a yes.

"Good. Now here's what I'll give you." And then I filled them in on my plan.

Time was of the essence. Tormund had been right about that, at least. We still had a long journey to Rockheim if we wanted to make the trade, then another journey back. The dwarves in the northern villages needed to know they'd get their sunstones back, or they'd move on to somewhere else. I could eventually get Tormund out of all that rubble, but I'd barely made a dent in several hours. It might take days.

Days we did not have.

And so I conducted the spiders to scrabble up the stone wall, grab some rocks, and haul them to wherever they deemed best. Despite Tormund's frustrated commentary, the spiders seemed happy enough to have a task to do. In fact, they seemed to come alive with it, emitting a strange sound that was almost like a happy chirp.

When all the smaller rocks had been carried off the boulders, the spiders crawled behind the line of carts and blinked at me. I furrowed my brow at them in question. One scurried forward, tapped at the massive boulder, then shoved. The boulder didn't move, but his leg twisted at an odd angle, and he chirped—this time much less happily.

"Ah, I see," I said, nodding. "You can move the smaller ones easily enough, but your legs aren't strong enough for a big one like this."

I considered the boulder. It was pretty intimidating.

"Tormund!" I called. "I'm going to try something."

"Your voice has gone all high-pitched," he said slowly. "Are you sure whatever you're thinking is a good idea?"

"Nope!" I said with a laugh. "I need you to stand aside."

"Stand aside? Stand aside where?"

"Out of the way of the smallest boulder."

A long pause followed. "All right. I'm out of the way."

"That was surprisingly agreeable of you. You aren't going to try to talk me out of my plan?"

"You're going to roll the boulder far enough forward for me to squeeze through the crack," came his reply. "It's a good idea."

"And you're not going to tell me I should leave you trapped in there? Because of your cursed powers?" I raised my eyebrow.

"I just want to see your face again, Astrid. Fuck all the rest of it."

I smiled. Gods, I wanted to see his face again, too. It had only been a few hours, but it felt like years had gone by. I wanted to bury my face in his chest and relish the scent of shadows against skin. I wanted to feel his arms wrap around me, protective and steady and sure. And I wanted to look into his eyes and see the truth of his feelings. Neither of us had voiced it, but it was real.

I'd never been more certain of anything.

"You know, in the storybooks, it's the damsel who always needs saving," I said as I palmed the stone. "Feels kind of good to know the damsels can do the saving sometimes."

I swore I could feel him smile as I shoved the boulder. It took all my muscles straining, my heartbeat pounding as hard as it could, and my forehead doused in sweat. But I pushed it, inch by inch, until a gap opened up large enough for Tormund to escape.

As soon as he stepped through, he swept me up in his arms. My feet left the ground as he spun me in circles, clasping me against him like he was scared to let go, or else he'd never again touch me. I closed my eyes and buried my face in his neck, breathing him in. The scent of sweat and sunstone-kissed skin. But gone was the scent of his shadows.

I pulled back. "Did you do it? Did you listen to what I said?"

"I think my curse is broken," he murmured, pulling my lips down to his. "All because I couldn't stand the thought of losing a life spent with you."