Page 117 of Moonmarked

But Rune was moving.

He’d climbed on the obsidian shards which seemed to withhold the heat of the lava that was slowly rising up from the cracks. His shadows had a good grip on the giant’s legs, and once the giant’s attention was fully on them, and both heads were looking down, Rune did jump.

With his sword in both his hands he jumped from one piece of broken obsidian to the next, then leaped in the air and drove his sword right into the shoulder of the giant before any of the heads noticed. The one on the right snapped to the side, trying tobitehim, but Rune was already gone, already climbing on his back, as silent and as graceful as a fucking shadow.

At the back of the giant’s neck, he raised an arm over his head and darkness blinked into existence. From it, he pulled out another sword, this one much shorter.

For a moment, the entire continent held their breath.

The giant moved too fast for anyone to see it coming, even Rune.

My hands closed around my mouth, my body both locked in place and burning where I stood from this energy that grew inside me.

The giantshookRune off his back, and Rune fell on the ground, arms around his head, rolling. I must have passed out for a second there, standing like I was, because the next moment I was aware again, Rune was standing atop a shiny obsidian shard, unbroken, sword raised in one hand, theother holding the tip of the shard for support as he looked up at the giant trying to stomp his shadows away.

They kept coming, though, kept trying to pull him down, though they were weaker. They were see-through now.

Rune was tired, and I had no idea for how much longer he could keep fighting.

That was the first time I prayed to the stars of Verenthia with all my heart.

thirty-eight

One second Runewas crouched on top of that obsidian, and the next he was a blur of shadow and steel, slicing through the air with impossible speed. He became one with the shadows that clung to the giant’s legs as he darted from one side to the other, dragging his blade along his skin wherever he could.

The giant’s left head roared as his leg buckled, but Rune was already climbing on his back again. His body twisted midair, dodging a backhanded swipe by inches. Dark blood splattered wherever his blade cut, but Rune didn’t stop for a second. He moved like he’d been born for this, each strike perfectly calculated.

A ball of darkness blinked into existence by his side, and from it he drew another dagger, which he then buried in the giant’s forearm when he tried to grab Rune.

Roars of pain echoed off the root-covered stone wall, but now the crowd was silent.

Rune waswinning.

Hope is such a wonderful, deadly thing. My heart was soaring, my hands on my chest, my mind almost made upall the way that Rune was really going to make it. He was going to kill the giant and he was going to walk out of that death trap alive.

My eyes were on him. I never once looked away, so I saw every stab of his daggers into the body of the giant. I saw how he evaded the huge, monstrous hands that came for him from both sides.

I saw the shadows that had climbed higher and higher onto the legs of the giant as the creature tried to reach for that massive, curved blade he’d brought with into the arena, but he couldn’t reach it. The lava had spread all around them, around the shadows that had spilled on the ground, taking away their energy by the second.

But it all happened too fast for anyone to even make a single sound.

Rune was on the giant’s shoulder, one dagger gone, the other aiming for his neck, and I thought he’d get him. I thought he’d deliver the final blow and be done with it.

Then the giant jumped.

In an attempt to free himself from the shadows, he no longer tried to grab that weapon from the ground. Instead, he jumped, and at the same time he reached for the chain of bones around his hips, broke it off himself, and lashed it like a whip at his own back—at Rune. He moved to the sides with uncontrolled speed, too, and the ground responded with a deafening groan.

A blink was all it took.

A blink, and the ground caved right underneath the giant’s feet. The shadows disappeared, and the lava climbed up.

It swallowed the screaming giant completely—and Rune with him.

For a moment, I couldn’t move if I tried. I couldn’tbreathe, couldn’t do anything but watch the lava rising and rising, filling up this large hole that the caved ground had left behind somewhere close to the middle of the arena where the giant had been, with Rune on his shoulder. Where the giant had so easily collapsed,gonelike had never even been there, completely vanished, in its place bubbling lava that was spreading fast throughout the entire arena.

Drums sounded somewhere in the distance.

People screamed—whether they were cheering or crying, I wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter anyway.

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