The sword hummed at my side. I twisted the ring and my traveling clothes were gone, replaced in an instant by fine robes that snapped into place against my skin. No time to test the defence rune. I only hoped the protection sewn into the buttons were strong enough.

  If it failed, I would feel it.

  No one had time to stare at my sudden change.

  The troll wrenched a tree from the ground with a wet, tearing sound and hurled it toward us. The trunk clipped another tree mid-flight, splintering and changing course. It struck the wagon early with a brutal thud, wheels skidding, wood screaming in protest. Horses and ponies reared and screamed, hooves churning as they fought the reins, seconds from bolting.

  Then Celeste began to sing.

  The sound did not cut through the chaos so much as press against it, spreading outward in slow, rolling waves. The light around us shifted, not bright but heavy, tinged with gold as if the air itself had thickened. The terror dulled, blunted at the edges, leaving the feeling behind like a bruise.

  Calum moved at once. He drew a long wooden flute free with a practiced flick of his thumb and joined her, breath catching slightly as he fell into the harmony. His notes wavered at first, then steadied, effort written plainly in the tightness of his jaw.

  The troll slowed.

  Its charge faltered as if it were trying to push through deep water. Its head swayed, one massive hand digging into the dirt to keep balance. A low, confused sound rumbled from its chest, equal parts anger and strain.

  That was when I saw them.

  Iron bracers encircled its forearms, scarred and pitted, etched with the same markings I had seen before. They glinted dully through the haze of sound and light. Old runes.

  My stomach sank.

  The runes glowed.

  “Shit,” I muttered.

  There was more to this fight than brute force, and whatever had been done to that troll was not something Celeste’s song was going to erase easily.

  More branches thrashed somewhere behind me. I turned just in time to see another tree lifted free and hurled overhead. It crashed into the wagon with a splintering roar, the impact ripping the song apart mid note.

  The pony beneath me screamed and went down hard. The saddle wrenched sideways and I was thrown, my shoulder slamming into the road as the breath was torn from my lungs. I rolled, choking on dust, ears ringing.

  My pony scrambled to its feet and bolted into the trees, tack flapping wildly. Doyle’s pack bounced once against its flank before vanishing with it into the forest.

  At the same moment, Amelia’s pony tore free. The reins snapped tight and the animal bolted, dragging her with it as she fought for balance.

  “Amelia!” Rob shouted.

  He drove his mount forward without hesitation, forcing it into a full sprint as dust and torn leaves burst up beneath its hooves.

  My stomach sank.

  Down the road, beyond the haze of smoke and debris, the trees parted. A face emerged from the shadowed green. Grey. Broad. Waiting. Its mouth curled into a slow, knowing grin as Amelia’s panicked pony raced straight toward it.

  I rolled onto my side and forced myself upright, teeth clenched against the pain.

  “Vanish,” a voice in my head urged.

  I slammed my thumb against the rune etched into the tang. I lowered my face toward the dirt, dropped my disguise and vanished from sight.

  I tightened my grip on the hilt, knuckles aching, blade starving.

  Behind me, Calum raised the whistle and blew.

  Nothing happened.

  No sound. No call. No answering cry.

  The first troll loomed over Celeste. My vision narrowed, panic flaring hot and sharp.

  Everything else fell away. I moved at once, keeping low, counting each step. The troll stood amid the wreckage of the wagon, wood crushed and twisted beneath its bulk, its attention locked onto her.

  I was almost to her when the white cushions inside the wagon shifted.

  Teeth and claws burst free first, long and serrated, followed by a mass of white fur that exploded outward with a roar. A huge she-wolf slammed into the troll’s chest, jaws snapping shut around its face. The troll reeled as claws tore into it, both crashing into the dirt in a tangle of fur and blood.

  Something heavy struck the ground behind me. I twisted around.

  The second troll was already in motion.

  I veered hard, cutting wide. Invisible or not, charging straight at it would have been suicide. My legs burned as I pushed for speed, boots slipping on churned earth while each of its steps sent a tremor through the ground.

  The troll wrenched another tree free and hurled it low and fast toward Celeste’s back.

  Calum stepped in front of her without hesitation.

  He raised one hand and pointed.

  A rush of wind tore overhead as something immense swept down from the sky. Midnight wings swallowed the light and vast talons closed around the flying trunk, catching it whole before it could land. The raven wrenched it aside with a thunderous beat of its wings and hurled it away from the road. The ground shook as the tree crashed down, missing the siblings by little more than a breath.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Dust and leaves rained across the road.

  Nothing about it felt like a victory.

  It felt like survival, bought one narrow moment at a time.

  The troll snarled, rage boiling over, and bent for another weapon. Its hands closed around a boulder half buried in the earth, fingers digging in as it fought to rip the stone free, muscles bunching as it struggled against its weight.

  I was already moving.

  I came in low and fast, heart hammering, the black blade raised as high. My eyes locked on the iron band around its wrist. I brought the sword down with everything I had.

  The impact rang through my bones.

  The iron did not simply break. It exploded. Runes etched into its surface flared, cracked, and were devoured by the blade. The sword did not slow. It bit through flesh and into bone, stopped only by the sheer width of the troll’s arm.

  The troll howled, staggering back, clutching at its wrist as blood poured free in heavy sheets.

  I didn’t stop.

  My gaze dropped to its leg, to the thick vein pulsing beneath stretched skin. I leapt forward, boots slipping in the blood, and drove the blade in with a grunt. The impact nearly tore the weapon from my hands. I held on, teeth clenched, twisting the blade as the troll thrashed and bellowed.

  The flesh around the wound blanched where the sword touched it, draining of colour as if the life were being pulled away.

  I wrenched the blade free and threw myself clear.

  The troll swayed, massive frame trembling, blood soaking into the dirt as it fought to remain upright. Each breath sounded weaker than the last.

  A loud crack echoed from down the road.

  Rob and Amelia were fighting for their lives. Stone fragments and clods of earth burst into the air as the troll’s fists smashed down, each impact missing by inches. Rob slipped past blows, boots skidding, while Amelia shouted over the noise, her words lost to the chaos.

  A pony lay twisted in the road, unmoving, its dark hide already slick with blood. The other had vanished.

  Calum tracked the struggle with a sharp glance, then seized the opening. He lifted the whistle, pointed and forced air through it. High above, the giant black raven banked hard, folded its wings, and plunged toward the road.

  The white wolf was still locked with the first troll, matching it blow for blow. Faster, yes, darting in and out, jaws snapping, claws raking. But speed alone was not enough. The troll refused to fall, its massive body absorbing punishment that would have crushed anything else.

  I sprinted in as it staggered under another impact.

  The ground lurched as I swung low, pouring everything into the strike. The blade bit deep but dragged, tearing through the back of the troll’s ankle before the tendon finally snapped.

  It howled and crashed down, one knee shattering stone. Blood poured over the wolf’s white fur.

  Still, the troll fought on, clawing at the ground, dragging itself forward as one massive arm swept blindly. The wolf lunged and was swatted aside, skidding across the road before scrambling back to her feet.

  She charged again. This time her jaws locked onto its throat. She shook hard. Bone cracked, and the troll went slack beneath her.

  Down the road, the fight was no cleaner.

  The raven dove from above, talons raking the troll’s face. It screamed, clutching at its eyes as feathers and blood filled the air. Rob surged in, blade flashing at its neck, while Amelia hammered its joints with stone. The troll fought until its legs gave way, then crashed to the road, shaking the ground as it fell.

  For a heartbeat, everything went still.

  The crash and roar fell away, leaving only the rasp of our own breathing, loud and uneven in the sudden quiet.

  Then a new sound rolled through the forest. A deep, distant thud that dwarfed every crash before it.

  “What now?” Rob’s voice carried down the road.

  Celeste turned to her brother.

  “Calum.”

  He was already beside her. She began to sing again, but the sound was tighter this time, frayed at the edges. The melody wavered as if it were being forced into shape rather than flowing freely. Calum lifted the flute and joined her, breath uneven, fingers missing notes before finding them again.

  The wolf moved first, placing herself in front the siblings, hackles bristling. Above, the raven circled, wings spread wide, beating the air as if daring anything to come closer.

  Still unseen, I slipped to the first fallen troll and drove the blade into the iron bracer at its wrist. Light flared, cracked, then tore loose as the sword dragged it free. I staggered, boots scraping, as the blade drank deep.

  I forced myself to move, heart hammering, every sense straining toward the threat I could not yet see.

  Then the forest began to break.

  Trees fell ahead of us, not one but many, trunks snapping and crashing as something enormous forced its way forward. The sound rolled through the ground before the shape appeared, each step making the road groan in protest.

  Even the forest seemed to hold its breath.

  Then, it emerged at last.

  A troll twice the size of the others, its bulk layered in stone and iron. A heavy necklace glowed gold against its thick neck. Plates of armour larger than the wagon were strapped across its body, each etched with runes that burned steadily as it moved.

  The road shuddered beneath its step.

  I had read about creatures like this, not in comforting stories but in warnings.

  A mountain troll.

  The sword hummed. A warning.

  Beside it, the mountain troll dragged a massive club, the same brutal shape I had seen nights ago. Wood and iron fused together, its surface scarred and darkened by old impacts.

  We can’t fight this… Where’s Brent?

  The thought cut sharp and useless.

  The golden light around the mountain troll’s neck pulsed in time with Celeste’s voice. The music strained, warped, as if pushing against something that refused to bend.

  The troll roared and slammed its club into the ground.

  The impact ripped through us. The ground buckled. Celeste and Calum were thrown from their feet, the song breaking apart as they hit the dirt. I staggered, vision blurring, and only stayed upright by snapping my kinetic rune awake. The force bled off through my boots, rattling my bones instead of dropping me.

  The massive she-wolf lunged.

  The troll caught her mid-air with one massive hand. There was no struggle, no contest. It flung her aside like a discarded rag. She vanished into the trees with a distant crash that made my chest tighten.

  “Eirwyn!” Celeste cried out.

  The raven dove next, wings beating hard as it went for the troll’s face. It came within a handspan of the club.

  The troll raised one finger.

  A bronze ring the size of a shackle shimmered and flared. The raven froze in the air, wings locked, talons outstretched, suspended as if pinned in glass.

  The mountain troll took a deliberate step toward the siblings, each footfall cracking the road beneath it.

  A stone hurtled down from above as Amelia struck, her magic slamming into the creature’s side with a thunderous crack. However, the boulder stopped a handspan from its chest and shattered in midair, fragments spraying outward as the runes etched into the troll’s armour flared to life. A translucent barrier rippled around its torso, absorbing the blow without yielding an inch.

  Rob swore and surged forward. Amelia followed.

  The troll glanced at them. It drove the club straight down into the road, the iron tip biting deep and holding fast as the ground cracked around it.

  Its free hand lifted, fingers closing around another ring there. The stone beneath Rob and Amelia shuddered, then softened, the road sagging as if it were breathing in. Dry earth collapsed into thick, dragging mud.

  They shouted as they sank. Rob clawed at the road, boots skidding as the muck dragged at his legs. Amelia fought to keep her balance, arms windmilling as the ground swallowed them to the knee, then the thigh. Every struggle only pulled them deeper until the mud closed over them completely.

  I moved without thinking. Panic gripped my chest. Trying to reach them.

  The ground trembled again, closer this time, and I stopped. My hand clenched around the hilt, breath coming too fast. There was no reaching them now. Not while that thing still stood.

  The troll turned away from where they had vanished, slow and deliberate. Its gaze slid back to the wagon, settling on the siblings.