The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) by Gwyndolyn Russell (100 best novels of all time .txt) 📗

It kicked at the last few pillars, barely keeping itself on solid ground. Mjolnir grabbed it by the fur around its collar and hoisted it back up.

The other serpent submerged, disappearing into the sea foam.

“Liam!” Reaper screamed. “Fuck! God, no! Please! Please, no!” He ran towards the edge to jump off.

Yet Yaaranam stopped him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled, dropping to her rear to bring him down and keep him from committing suicide.

“There’s nothing you can do! There’s nothing we can do!” She said, squeezing him tight.

Reaper tried to shove her away, crying out. “We have to do something!” he scratched at the dirt. Reaper was losing more than just a good soldier. He was losing a friend. The greatest friend he could ever ask for. They fought together. They survived together. For years they thrived with one another, beating down every obstacle and rising through the ranks. He couldn’t bear the thought to lose him now. Not when they were still so young. Not when they still had a job to do.

“God, please.” He cried.

Fenris stood at the edge, staring down into the ocean. The artifact was gone. Somewhere down there, either resting in the gullet of one of those serpents, or sitting on the ocean floor. It thought about taking the dive. Going after those serpents. Going for Jackal. For the artifact. How could they come away with nothing to gain for their losses?

Was it even worth it?

Fenris could not make its body move. The water was deep. Empty. In its heart it knew what it had to do, yet its mind screamed the opposite. Its nerves flared with fire. Muscles yanking in the other direction. Its lights were flashing brightly, asymmetrically. It could not even control the khexide flowing from its body.

“Fenris!” Reaper snapped. Yaaranam still held onto him to keep him from going over the edge himself. “You have to go after him! You have to save him!”

Fenris gave him no response, or even acknowledgment.

“Goddammit all!” Reaper slammed his fist into the dirt. “Fucking do something!”

Mjolnir’s ears dropped, his tail limp. What could any of them do? Fenris barely even scratched the one he had hammered.

“Fenris, please!” Reaper begged. “You’re the only one that can do it! Don’t you care about him?!”

Fenris cringed, its head dropping.

“If there’s only one good thing you do in your life, let it be that you’ve tried to save someone!”

Still, the valkyrie did not move.

Mjolnir held up a hand. “I don’t think he can do anything.” He shook his head.

“Yes, he fucking can!” Reaper snarled. “He was created to do this! Stop being selfish for one goddamn minute, Fenris!”

Its jaw clattered.

With no sign of it budging from the edge, Reaper dropped his head.

He folded his hands together and mumbled endlessly into the dirt. Praying for Jackal’s safe return. Praying that he would lose no one else.

Jackal took countless risks for Fenris. He could have lost his life on many occasions. He put up with the valkyrie’s nuances. Accepted it for who and what it was no matter what Fenris revealed. Was this what one would call a friend? It recalled all of the little things Jackal did for it and told it. Risking his own safety and going against his beliefs just to provide food when the beast was starving. Never being cruel. Only loving.

How dare Fenris let it all go as if it did not matter? It mattered to the valkyrie. Every ounce of it. Every purity from Jackal’s soul paved a new path for Fenris. That maybe, just maybe it was not a monster after all.

Without thinking of the dangers to itself, Fenris jumped.

It splashed down into the roaring waves and in a hail of bubbles sank like a boulder.

Not ready for the rush of water in its lungs. Fenris was forced to surface. None too graceful, its wingarms flapped down to get it back to the rough waves. They splayed out, its cloak serving to help keep it buoyant, but it still had to work far too hard to keep its head above water.

“Fenris! Are you okay?” Mjolnir called from the edge.

It paid him no mind. Took a deep breath, as much as its lungs could hold. Dove down by folding its wingarms up.

“He can’t swim, can he?” Mjolnir asked, looking to the others.

Reaper looked up, eyes growing wide. That would explain why it was desperate to get out of the lake when it fought the skuladr. Why Jackal had to save it from the water. That must have been why it avoided anything bigger than a puddle.

Reaper practically forced Fenris to go. Forced the valkyrie to its death….

Fenris would go down as far as it had to. It had the feeling that it would probably not come out of this alive. It would never see the surface again. Its body did not evolve to handle water. Its armor was airtight which kept the water out, but it had no true buoyancy, nor control. It did not even understand how it was meant to move in the slog of liquid. Its limbs wanted to move as if it were walking on land, but that wasn’t working. Its wingarms pushed forward, then down and back in swift motions, its cloak dragging with them. This helped propel it forward in bursts.

Its chest tightened.

It needed to hurry.

The calls of the serpents were not far. In fact, when Fenris looked hard enough, it could see the tips of their tails as they swam down towards the bottom. Fenris followed them as quickly as it could. As soon as it could touch one of them, it dug its claws into the tail, ripping right through the delicate scales.

At first, the serpents ignored it. They continued to descend into the darkness. Fenris dragged itself down the writhing body, one hand at a time. The soft flesh shifted to metal the further up it went. Large spikes jutted out from the serpent’s back, grown over in barnacles and coral.

Finally, one of