Jonas steps back and raises his hands. I see his muscles twitch and his jaw tighten. I can practically feel the power radiating from him.

‘I think it’s working,’ I murmur.

The jötunn slows its movements, as if confused. That’s good. I remember exactly how Jonas’s powers affected me, and the blindness it brings means the giant won’t notice us coming at it with our weapons. But as I move to make my first strike, the jötunn lets out a scream.

Guttural, animalistic, and putrid, it’s strong enough to blow my hair back from my face.

‘He’s really mad now!’ Estel shrieks.

Some powers are even less helpful than none at all, I can’t help but think. Still, I use the moment to throw a dagger up towards his neck. The aim is spot on, but he moves his head at the last minute, and the blade bounces off his jaw.

‘It’s fine,’ Jonas says. ‘This will work. I’m disorienting it.’

‘He doesn’t need fucking disorienting,’ Benny snaps back. ‘He needs fucking putting down.’

Benny’s right. In the confusion of the blindness, the giant is stumbling forward, the pain in his legs secondary to this new affliction.

As I hasten out of his path, I glance across the battlefield. Only one jötunn has been taken down so far. Unsurprisingly, it’s the one the knights were fighting. But then something else catches my attention.

Kyor is battling a jötunn. Alone.

He has his jötunn trapped in his own micro-storm, and rain pelts down from green-tinged clouds hanging above his head. But it’s the lightning that mesmerises me. Hundreds of forked streaks strike its shoulder as wind knocks it back and forth. Goosebumps that have nothing to do with the storm slide over my skin.

‘Well, that makes my power look pretty shit.’ Llinos is at my side, blasting another burst of air at our jötunn’s fist as it swings above the sand.

‘Your power is definitely not shit,’ I say. ‘Right now, it’s what’s keeping us alive.’

‘True. But I’m not sure for how long.’

I struggle to tear my eyes away from the prince. With his powers as a storm-weaver, lightning, rain, and wind buffet his foe in an impressive display. He really is formidable … and a distraction I really don’t need at the moment.

I refocus. Daggers aren’t any good against the giant as the blades merely bounce off its thick, leathery skin. And though Benny and Loch are getting a few swipes in with their swords, they’re barely slicing through the giant’s top layer of skin.

‘We have one very unhappy big fella here,’ Benny yells. ‘We need to switch this up. And whatever the hell you’re doing, Jonas, for fuck’s sake, stop it.’

‘I’m helping!’

‘You’re not,’ Estel snaps. ‘Any minute now he’s going to⁠—’

The jötunn roars as it lashes out, its whole body sweeping in a wide circle that catches Jonas on the thigh before continuing on. Llinos is blasting everything she has at it, but it’s not making the slightest bit of difference. When its fist swings out the next time, it collides with Estel. The crunch of her bones reverberates in my ears as her body is thrown up into the air.

She hits the sand with a lifeless thud.

Guilt swamps me, but I can’t let it distract me. Not now. We are losing this. We are losing our lives. As I stand there, frozen by indecision, Benny and Loch continue attacking with their swords, but it’s not going to be enough. We’re only getting weaker, and the giant’s just getting more pissed off.

‘Rose!’ Jonas calls out to me. ‘Do you remember what I said? What you need to do?’ He nods across to the sand timer and I see the half hour is already more than halfway gone. He’s telling me to save myself.

But Llinos is giving it everything she has. Benny, too.

Estel is a crumpled heap on the sand, and like fuck am I going to leave them to a fate like that.

I have to do something. Know yourself. That’s what Zelle told me to do. Well, I do know myself. I know I can throw knives, and I know I can climb.

The thought has barely formed when it hits me. There’s only one thing here that I can scale and doing it might actually help us.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 28

‘Keep him distracted!’ I yell at the others, not giving myself a moment to consider what I’m about to do. ‘Pain, blind him, I don’t care. Just keep him distracted!’

‘Rose, whatever you’re planning, don’t do it!’ Jonas shouts back, but I block him out as I run towards the jötunn and launch myself upwards. My hands claw at his calves and the thick, bristly hair that covers them. Gross, yes, but also incredibly helpful. I pull myself up on it, using all the friction I can get from his rough, pitted skin. It’s not easy – and a darn sight harder than climbing the wall with Benny – but it’s doable. I can do this. I have to do this.

The jötunn’s arms swipe haphazardly around, and I press myself flat against him as his gnarled fingers pass only inches from my side. Relief floods through me. He wasn’t aiming for me. If he had been, I’d be on the floor. I’m nothing to him. An irritation at most, and one that’s causing way less pain than the others.

I climb higher and faster than I expected. Before I’ve even had a chance to check how far I’ve come, I’m standing on his shorts-like attire. It’s the closest thing I’ve had to a ledge to stand on, and I intend to use it for a moment’s respite. But as I glance up, the coarse fabric of the garment slips beneath my feet, and the ball of my foot goes down with it.

‘Fuck!’ All I can feel is air beneath me as gravity takes over, my body twisting as I start plummeting. Somehow, I’m able to grab hold of the waistband with my fingertips, and the slightest quiver of relief trembles in my breath as I claw myself back up.

‘Of course, we had to pick the tallest fucking jötunn,’ I mutter, dragging my feet back onto the waistband. This time I make sure I’ve got more than one secure hold as I catch my breath and glance at the sand timer by the priestesses.

I’ve heard the expression ‘time flies when you’re having fun,’ but apparently, it also flies when you’re trying to stay alive. There can’t be more than ten minutes left. It should be comforting, except it would still only take the jötunn a matter of seconds to permanently end things for any of us.

All of the crew is bloodied now. Blood from a gash on Llinos’s forehead is streaming into her eyes, and I’d be amazed if she can even see. I need to do this. For them. For Kay. For me. I straighten, suck in a lungful of air, and prepare to go again.

I may have reached the halfway point, but the jötunn’s back reveals a new problem. Unlike his legs, there’s far less hair here and far less friction. There are a few patches of calloused skin that look hard and rough enough for me to use as handholds, but all of it is slick with sweat.

I pause, considering my options. Other than the blade from Dinah, which I’m not sure will even work, I’ve only got one dagger left. Theoretically, I could use it with the minimal natural handholds I can find and scale him that way, but it would mean stabbing a dagger into his back. Repeatedly. A dagger in the back of a creature this size might do next to no damage, but it would likely be enough to tip me from irritant to threat.

Still balanced on the fabric of his shorts, I search for my next handhold.

‘Oh Gods, that is truly disgusting.’ I gag at a wart-like mound that protrudes from his lower back, but I use it all the same.

I stretch my fingers wide, retching against the smell as I clasp the rough, cracked bulge. I’ve just pulled myself up and am using it as a foothold when it feels as if the entire earth shakes. It takes me only a moment to see what caused it.

Kyor has brought down his jötunn.

I don’t know how the other groups are doing, and I don’t care. I need to keep going and focus on the task at hand. With a loud grunt, I hoist myself up onto the next protruding mound, my stomach churning from a mixture of fear and the putrid smell, and barely wait for my feet to steady before searching out the next callus.