Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) by Gwen Rivers (free ebooks romance novels .TXT) 📗

the line of Loki. She looks like one of them, but is a goddess of Asgard.”

All the breath rushes from Aiden’s lungs. He looks down at the seer’s purple face. Can it be true?

“Váli?” The clip-clopping of heels approaches.

“We must go,” Grendel beckons him forward. “Before she discovers the duplicity.”

Aiden tosses Harmony over one shoulder in a fireman’s carry. His gaze goes to the mantle where the ruby dragon egg sits. Without a thought he snatches it and puts it in his pocket. There is a popping sound and then the dwarf snags his hand. The three vanish into the night.

Escape

Astrid screams as she stares through the front window. A sense of weightlessness comes over us as the van is lifted up into the air.

And a giant eye peers into the front windshield at us. An eye the size of a beachball.

“It’s okay,” I say to Astrid. “Really. She’s a friend.”

Well, sort of.

Shots ring out as the armed passenger guard aims to take the giantess, out. The rifle shakes in his hands. He is pants-pissing terrified, and I don’t blame him. I’ve seen a giant at full size before but the sight is still unnerving. She can crush us like bugs. Might do so by accident if she isn’t careful.

Angrboda roars and then cracks the van open like an egg, I reach for Astrid as we are falling, falling.

Then land safely in the giantess’s palm. She lowers us carefully down to the ground.

“What is that?” Astrid breathes, eyes wide.

“We’re like you,” I say, hands out. “Astrid, it’s okay. None of us are going to hurt you.”

“Nic?”

I know that voice. “Chloe?”

Then she is there, a hunting knife in hand. “Are you all right?”

I want to cry. My aunt has come back for me.

“We need to get out of here.” She scowls at the shackles. “Angrboda, can you…?”

The giantess appears, her mouth covered in blood. Had she been eating the guards? “No, I’m tapped out. Get her loose and Jedda can undo the rest.”

“Jedda?” I ask.

“Her ward. We’ll explain everything. Later.” Chloe lifts the chains. “Come on now, this whole thing is going to go up like a Roman candle.”

My steps are small, my gait bound by the chains, but I manage to let her guide me from the back of the turned over van and out into the snow. “What did you do?”

“Trust me when I say you don’t want to know. Just keep it in mind that you should never ever piss off a giant.”

“Noted,” I breathe. There is blood in my hair, though I don’t think it’s mine. “Astrid?”

Chloe turns and sucks in a sharp breath as she sees Astrid. But before she can say anything a shot rings out. A dot of red appears on Astrid’s forehead. The girl crumples to the ground.

“No!” I am on my feet and running. I barely realize that he is pointing his gun at me, don’t acknowledge Chloe’s scream.

Click. The chamber is empty.

I grab his lapels and press my lips to his, giving him my poison. My goodnight kiss. I don’t care about his family, the people who will miss him. He shot an innocent twelve-year-old in the forehead. I can not allow him to draw breath any longer.

He slumps and I drop him like the useless sack of meat he is. I start for Astrid, ignoring my chains, the stiffness, and sore muscles.

She’s gone. I recognize death’s claim anywhere, the fog over the gray-blue eyes.

“Nic, I’m sorry,” my aunt says.

“We need to get out of here.” Angrboda is shrinking down to human size.

“I can’t just leave her here, like this.”

“You stay and you’re putting us all at risk.” The giantess snaps.

Chloe studies my face. “There’s nothing more you can do for her.”

“I can bury her.” I look up and hold her gaze. “Please, I can’t leave her out alone like this.”

Angrboda holds out a hand. The ground beneath our feet shudders, and then parts. When it stops, there is a deep cavern, deep enough for a girl’s body.

“She was obsessed with being in love,” I say as Angrboda places her limp form down inside the hole. “There was a boy, Declan. She’d already given him her heart.”

“Then he was lucky.” Chloe puts an arm around me.

Angrboda climbs out and holds out her hand again. The earth swallows up my small friend.

“Get her to the car,” I hear the giantess say. “We don’t know how much of a head start we’ll have.”

I move to the car, let Chloe settle me in the backseat. My feet are numb. My heart is numb.

I’m sorry, Astrid.

“You know, I used to remember humans tasting better than this.” The giantess burps delicately.

“It’s the diet,” Chloe says. “Too much-processed shit makes the meat rancid.”

“Oh, look who’s talking, Miss, I’ve never met a candy bar I didn’t like.”

“Not true. They have the ones that don’t have chocolate in them. What the fuck is the point of that?”

I laugh. It’s a half-hysterical sound. Here I am, in the middle of the woods with my aunt the fate and chocoholic and a giantess who has just gorged herself on an entire special unit. A young girl is dead. And these two sound like the odd couple.

I am free.

But at what cost?

“We need to get out of here. That agent, Hanson, will be rabid in her hunt to reclaim you.” This from the giantess.

Chloe looks up at her and winces. “Um, Angie you’ve got a little special agent on your face.”

Angrboda grins, showing off bloody teeth and I feel like retching.

“Don’t look, sweets.” Chloe hands me a coat. “Giants are known as maneaters for a reason.”

“Yeah.” I study the back of Angrboda’s bloodred hair as she settles herself behind the wheel. “Where are we going? Back to the farm?”

Chloe shakes her head. “It isn’t safe. That’s the first place they’ll look for you.”

“Across the Veil?”

“Foolish child,” the giantess snaps. “Without a plan? That is Underhill’s realm and she will know the second you or I cross back over there.”

The sound