Scorched Heart (The Firebrand Series Book 4), Helen Harper [free ereaders .txt] 📗

power I could muster, jerked backwards. The bugbear clung to me, piggyback fashion. I could feel its claws ripping into my skin and its heavy weight dragging me down.

Gritting my teeth and summoning my strength, I ran backwards, building up as much speed as I could in the short distance granted to me. There was a jolt as I smacked into the bugbear and sandwiched it between me and solid rock.

I stepped forward and threw myself back again. I felt its shudder of pain as I slammed it into the wall, but it still didn’t moan or roar or even squeak. Its silence was eerie. I stepped forward again, prepared to repeat the sequence, but the bugbear had had enough. It fell off my back, its curved claws tearing my skin even more deeply.

I didn’t waste time checking on the creature; I knew without looking that it would be preparing to come at me again. With blood trickling down my chest from the bugbear’s attempts to slice me, I ran toward Rothsay.

In the time between my first attempt to get him and this one, he’d armed himself more appropriately. The scalpel was on the floor by his feet and he now held what looked like a samurai sword. A damned samurai sword! He gripped the hilt with both hands and waved it. ‘I’ll gut you like a pig!’ he spat at me, swinging the blade first one way and then the other.

I heard a huff behind me and the thunderous sound of the bugbear’s massive paws as it came for me yet again. I’d been lucky last time, but I doubted I’d manage the same pincer technique again.

The seconds seemed to slow. I realised with shocking clarity that even Rothsay’s ineptitude with the sword didn’t matter. No matter which angle I came at him from, he would cut me. A moment later, the bugbear would be on me, ripping my throat and guzzling my blood like it had with Patrick Lacey and Julie Mackintosh.

But all wasn’t lost. There was still one move I could make.

Raising my hand, I released the machete and sent it spinning towards Rothsay then I ran at him. Instead of embedding itself into his thick skull, the machete smacked off the wall of rock to his left and fell to the ground with a clatter.

Rothsay laughed. ‘You missed.’

No, I hadn’t. I took another step and dived for the ground, my fingertips stretching for the discarded scalpel. As I scooped it up and gripped it tightly, I slid between Rothsay’s legs, twisted and thrust it to my right through his Achilles heel.

Rothsay howled in agony and brought down the sword automatically, just as the bugbear lunged for me. Rather than cutting into my soft flesh, the blade sliced the bugbear instead.

Breathing heavily, I dragged myself to the side before scrambling up. The sword was wedged between the bugbear’s shoulder blades. Its massive jaws opened in a silent scream of fury and pain. Without understanding what had happened, it turned on Rothsay, desperate to protect itself from this new, unexpected threat.

Rothsay had told me that it was a beast, an animal without reason. An animal would seek to protect itself against danger, even when that danger came from its master.

It leapt forward. Rothsay opened his mouth but no words came out. His tongue couldn’t form whatever word or command he wanted before the bugbear ripped out his throat with its guzzling maw.

I grabbed the hilt of the sword, tugging it until it slid free from the bugbear’s body. The beast jerked and turned, but it was too late. I raised the blade and brought it down onto the creature’s neck, severing it from its spine.

The bugbear stared at me with dark, surprised eyes, then it collapsed on top of Rothsay’s destroyed body.

Chapter Thirty

It wasn’t until I found a narrow tunnel leading out of my prison and stumbled along it that I realised I was in a cave far underground. I suspected that Rothsay would have been proud of himself for managing to bring my unconscious body here. If he were still capable of talking.

After thirty minutes of shuffling, scrambling and crawling, I finally emerged into bright sunlight. The cave’s entrance was all but obscured by thick bushes. Not only that, it also appeared to be in a wood. I swivelled round, gazing at the trees and listening for any signs of life beyond the buzz of insects and the occasional call of a passing bird. I had no idea where I was and no clue how to reach civilisation.

The blood from my cuts was continuing to flow and I felt incredibly weak, but I wouldn’t simply lay down and die. Reborn in flame or not, I wasn’t that kind of person. I set my jaw and selected a direction at random. Sooner or later, I had to come across a farmhouse or a road or something.

It was slow going. At first the adrenaline that continued to course through my system in the aftermath of the fight gave me enough energy to proceed, but the deeper I walked the weaker I became. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to keep going. There were no paths to follow and a lot of the ground underfoot was boggy; it would have been difficult to cross under the best of circumstances.

Rothsay had the benefit of the bugbear’s strength to get me here when I was unconscious. He’d managed it and so would I. I put my head down and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Lukas would be so worried; I had to get to him and show him that I was alright.

After what felt like an eternity, and with almost every inch of me screaming in pain, I heard the burble of flowing water. I stumbled towards it. There might not be a path but I could follow a river; it had to lead somewhere.

It wasn’t a river; even calling it a stream would have