Page 27 of Hallowed & Haunted

“You lost the wager, and if you come near him ever again, you’ll taste my wrath.”

“Noaidi—”

Niillas roars, and it feels like the sound is shaking the pillars of the sky itself.

“No more chatter. You leave my human alone!”

The troll takes a step back.

“But I’m not unreasonable either.” Niillas’ voice takes on an almost sultry edge that makes the hairs on Sander’s arm rise. “You can still feast tonight. I smelled a hurt reindeer on my way here. I’m giving it to you as a gift, compensation for leaving my warrior alone.”

“You’re a wise man,noaidi.”

The troll all but drools, and Sander is sure that this particular picture is going to haunt his worst dreams for months, maybe years, to come.

“Follow the trail west to the ridge overlooking the fjord. You know the one where the ancient pine trees grow. You can trap the reindeer there, and have soft meat and warm blood tonight.”

The troll leans forward, a mockery of a bow toward Niillas. Then it turns and vanishes into the darkness.

Sander’s legs give out under him, and he collapses onto the sleeping bag, his hands shaking uncontrollably.

Niillas glares after the stállu for a long beat.

“This wager was incredibly foolish,” he says, still eyeing the shattered doorway like the troll might return any moment. “But it was also very clever, and very brave.”

“It worked, too.”

Niillas huffs that annoyed-bear sound again, which makes Sander smile.

“You’ve managed to make a creature as old as the very rocks this farm stands on hold a grudge against you.”

“But it won’t be around these woods for much longer, am I right?”

Niillas turns, his dark gaze achingly familiar even though he’s currently occupying the body of the most dangerous creature Sander has encountered in his life, ghosts and trolls included. Stepping closer, Niillas sniffs Sander’s hair.

“If everything works out as I planned, he’ll greet the sun on the cliffs above the fjord. He won’t bother you again.”

“Oh, Niillas—”

The temperature plummets.

It happens so fast that Sander’s next breath crystallizes in the air. Frost spreads across the walls like a living thing, turning the windows opaque and making the fire dim. And in the center of the room, Marta’s ghostly form begins to take shape.

Her hollow eye sockets find Sander collapsed by the tiled stove.

“You stay with me,” she hisses. “I’ve been alone for so long. It’s unfair. You don’t get to leave while I’m stuck here.”

The cold radiating from her is glacial, making Sander shiver as she points a pale finger at him.

“I offered you mercy,” she shrieks. “I offered you peace in the cold, where pain cannot follow. But you refused the quick death, the clean ending. Now you’ll freeze to death slowly, agonizingly! And let me tell you: freezing isn’t a gentle way to die.”

“The troll is gone,” Sander tries even as he feels with sick certainty that she won’t see reason. “Maybe you can be free too.”

“Free? I’ll never be free again, and you will share my fate.”

“Leave,” Niillas growls, stepping right in her path, shielding Sander from her ghostly presence.

Ice crystals form on his dark fur where Marta’s presence touches, but he doesn’t budge an inch. Sander fumbles for a log, for anything he can use to defend Niillas and himself, but he’s out of clever ideas, and he feels the exhaustion to his bones.