2

Siiri

“What is that creature?” Aina cries as soon as we slip under the cover of the trees.

“My guess is that’s the thing stealing girls,” I pant. “Not some lonely fisherman and not a scurrilous Swede.”

I pull us deeper into the forest, Aina’s hand clasped firmly in mine. It’s darker here. Too dark. We should have been home already. Behind us, I can still hear the screams of the people on the beach. The men will soon be out in droves, bows and axes at the ready. They’ll come for us. They’ll help. We just have to find a place to hide.

“You’re faster than me, Siiri.” Aina pulls on my hand. “I can’t keep up. Just go—”

“Not a chance.”

Through the dim trees, the underbrush rustles and twigs snap. As we burst into a clearing, I stop and drop Aina’s hand, still holding tight to my little filleting knife. Chest heaving, I put a protective arm up in front of her. Something is coming, and Aina’s right, we can’t keep running. Better to stand and catch my breath. Better to die facing my foe.

“That thing is here for one of us. Siiri, you need to go .” She gives me a shove. “Keep running.”

Too late.

In another swirl of billowing black smoke, the horned woman appears before us on the other side of the clearing. Her head tips to the side at an impossible angle, more owl than human, and those black eyes gauge us, as if she’s deciding which of us to kill first.

“Stay behind me,” I rasp, stepping in front of Aina.

She clings to my hips with both hands. I can feel the warmth of her breath on my neck.

The creature’s mouth opens wide, and I can’t help but gag. Once, when I was hunting with Onni, we came across a dead deer washed up on the beach. The carcass was bloated and rotting, bugs eating away its eyes. The waves slowly pushed it back and forth against the pebbles. The smell of that mangled, bloated deer carcass emanates out of this creature’s cavernous mouth. Moist decay, sour rot. I can’t breathe. Can’t think. My eyes sting. My nose and throat burn. Behind me, Aina makes a choking sound.

A low growl comes from behind us both, and I know what I’ll see if I turn around. That monstrous wolf will be there, those glowing red eyes watching me. With one hand on Aina, I adjust my stance so I can face both monsters at once.

“Stay back,” I shout, swiping the air with my little knife.

The horned woman steps closer, so close her shadow towers over us. She makes no sound when she moves. Not a single whisper or crunch over the fallen leaves. That rune-marked, skeletal hand extends towards me.

“I said stay back,” I cry, swinging wildly with my knife. The blade connects with the meat of the creature’s palm, and she pauses. Next to her, the wolf growls, flicking his serpent-like tail. A sickening smile spreads across the woman’s face, as if she’s surprised and delighted to see I would dare attack her. With a sweep of her arm, she launches me off my feet. Her hand doesn’t even touch me, and yet I’m breathless, my vision spinning as I fly through the air and slam against a tree. I crumple, body aching.

“Siiri,” Aina cries out, somewhere to my right. “Don’t hurt her,” she screams at the monster. “Take me. Please , take me instead!”

Never.

Darkness creeps in from the corners of my vision as I scramble to my knees. That creature is not taking Aina away from me. Warm blood oozes from my cut brow and down my cheek, dripping onto the fallen leaves. My breaths come short and fast as I paw at the ground, desperate to find my knife. I grasp a small rock. The fingers of my other hand wrap around the sharp metal of my knife blade. Stumbling to my feet, I throw the rock. It strikes the horned woman on the side of the head. She turns to face me, letting out an unearthly hiss.

“Aina, run,” I shout.

But Aina is rooted to the spot.

With a feral cry, I throw my knife. It spins through the air, handle over blade, landing hilt-deep in the chest of the horned woman. “Now, Aina,” I call. “Run!”

She shakes her head, tears slipping down her cheeks. “Not without you.”

The monster doesn’t even blink as the knife pierces her heart. Slowly, she raises her hand and jerks it free. With her haunting gaze locked on mine, she drops the knife to the ground at her feet. Still looking at me, she steps to the side and reaches out, her rune-marked fingers gripping Aina’s exposed forearm.

Aina’s scream rips through me, stealing the air from my lungs.

Torches bob around us in the night, flashes of golden yellow. Men run towards her screams. The monster gives me one last lopsided smile before disappearing in a swirl of black smoke, drawing Aina with her.

“Siiri—” Aina’s cry is cut short, lost to the shadows.

“Aina!”

As the smoke dissipates, the giant wolf lunges, crossing the clearing in one leap. It follows Aina and the creature into dark oblivion. I stumble forward, waving my hand through the wisps of shadow, but they’re gone.

I sink to my knees, heart thudding in my chest. My eyes are fixed on the point where Aina just disappeared. She could have run, but she wouldn’t leave me. Given the choice between her and me, she let the monster take her.

The black void that swallowed her whole fills me, growing, growing inside me. My heart pounds as the truth sinks into my chest, coiling around my very bones. Aina is gone. I couldn’t protect her. I failed her. She sacrificed herself to the monster to save me.

I collapse on the forest floor, the moss now a pillow for my aching head. It’s my fault Aina’s gone, so let me die here in these woods. I close my eyes, my cold hand pressed against the soil. “Take me,” I whisper to the ground. “Ilmatar, take me with her. I am nothing without her.”

The All-Mother answers my prayer as blessed darkness overtakes me.