Berserker god

CHAPTER FOUR

Suvi

Iran blindly, not letting myself stop or look back. If I looked back, I’d see it. That formidable, terrible creature that had shattered the sky. The creature who could have been hunting me even now.

I hoped to hell I had enough of a head start. Something seemed to have hurt it, or at least shocked it. It had been practically on top of me, looming over me on all fours and snapping its feral jaws. When my hand had smacked against its chest in my attempt to get away, it had rocked back on its knees, grasping its head, whole body straining.

Rocks and dust sprayed from my boots as I sprinted. Fear made me fast, but it also made me clumsy, and soon my ru

I can’t keep this up for long.

I choked back a terrified sob at the thought of what might happen when I stopped.

And the worst part of it all was that, while I couldn’t afford to stop ru

Get to it, and lead the monster right to my friends?

I yanked my chin back down a split second too late, colliding with an outcropping of stone so hard it made my teeth rattle and knocked me flat onto my ass. I bit back a yelp as pain lanced up my tailbone. The pressure let up almost instantly, but there was no relief in that. Because I was being lifted.

It has me.

It has me, and I am going to die.

There was no fighting a strength like that. The power at my back was like nothing I’d ever experienced. Like a living, breathing, pulsing wall of iron. Even so, I tried—I fucking tried—kicking and wriggling and screaming and spitting. One massive hand clamped onto my abdomen, the other sliding up until the scaly palm settled into place at the front of my throat. Its hand was so huge that its fingers reached easily around my neck, meeting its thumb at the base of my skull.

It was an odd thought to have, in the final moment before my death. The thought of how nearly human its hand was, despite the monstrous size.

I scrunched my eyes shut, waiting for pressure. Waiting for the end.

At least I’d get to see her again sooner than I’d thought.

Elvi. Are you waiting for me, big sister?

But the end never came. Instead, the creature sank to its knees once more, dragging me along with it. It held my back against its chest with one hand while the other released my throat. It didn’t stop touching me, though. That hand dragged upward to my jaw, passing over my face before sinking huge fingers into my hair. Tingles exploded along my scalp, and I shivered violently.

What the fuck is happening right now?

It wasn’t hurting me, or trying to eat me.

It was...

Petting me?

It was making a sound, and I realized with a start that it was speaking. I had no idea what it was saying, but the sound repeated over and over in a pattern that could only be words, at least to my human ears.

“Aerra bai. Aerra bai.”

“Let me go!”

It was probably stupid trying to speak to it in English. Even if it could speak, that didn’t mean it would understand. But even so, I did it again, and again, and then said the same thing in Fi

It did not let go. But it did stop saying aerra bai, quieting, as if listening. It grew more still, too. I didn’t realize how much that thing had been shaking until it stopped.

I still shook. My whole body trembled in its grip. The muscles along my back tensed and tightened against the solid strength of its massive chest and abdomen. I spasmed violently when the monster’s snout moved down and brushed my cheek. Its breath grazed my neck, a heated fan that made goosebumps rise and pucker. The sweat from my sprint grew cold, and my clammy body shivered even harder.

My entire spine turned to ice when I heard the ship lift off.

“Let me go!” I screamed, my urge to fight renewed. I could not be left here. Not alone, not like this.

Whether it was a response to my sudden spasming, or a response to the new sound of the ship in the air, I couldn’t be sure. Either way, the monster tensed, standing and hauling me right up along with it. It was so huge that, simply by holding me one-armed against its chest, my feet dangled and kicked a metre off the ground. I gripped its forearm, both marvelling and cringing at the metal-hard strength beneath those scales. Golden light glowed beneath and between the scales, spilling over my skin as I scratched and squeezed. That light was beautiful. And it was warm. Warm on my fingers when the night-drenched air was turning cold all around me.

The only warning I had for what came next was a leathery snapping sound behind me. But I didn’t know until we were in the air that it was the sound of wings unfurling.

A scream tore from my lungs as we lurched into sudden upward motion. Both the alien’s arms were around me now, holding me against its chest as we arrowed into the sky. We were going so fucking fast. Faster than the ship, which was now below us even as it ascended.

I wondered if they had me up on the viewscreen, or on some sca

No doubt there was nothing they could do.

They could try to shoot us down, I guess.

Kill the monster and me all at once.

But that seemed less and less likely with every ferocious beat of the creature’s wings. We carved through the night like a hurled knife.

Until suddenly, we stopped.

The alien replaced one of its arms around me with its tail, holding me firmly while it raised its newly free hand. Directly above us, the stars dimmed as if being viewed through thicker and thicker ice. And then I couldn’t see the stars at all.

It’s happening again.

The sky was blackening, hardening. Turning to stone once more, right before my eyes. And there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. If I made one wrong move, one single slip, I’d be hurtling down towards the ground faster than I could say hyvästi.

When the sky ahead was dense and coal-coloured crystal, the monster raised his gold and emerald hammer of a fist and smashed it. I flinched at the colossal crack of sound, then tried to quell the way my stomach flip-flopped in response to my movement that high in the air.

Just like before, a huge crack had opened in the stone. But this time, nothing came through it. Never mind flip-flopping – my stomach felt like it dropped out of my body entirely when I realized what was about to happen. That we were going to go in.

“No! Stop!” I sobbed, voice cracking as the monster beat its potent wings.

But it didn’t stop.

It plunged into the abyss beyond that crack and it dragged me right along with it.