Queen of Asgard (NaNoWriMo2018, Completed!)

2: Split Second

My body screamed in pain as it crashed to the floor, dust and splinters polluting the air and burning my lungs.

"Ow," Yuki groaned in my arms as I let go, limbs burning with pain and adrenaline. Something ice cold was pressed against my skin, burning it and I sat up, recoiling from the pain.

"A-are you okay?" I choked, getting to my feet and squinting.

The air was thick with dust and...snow. I blinked waiting for the drifting white flakes to fade away but they didn't, they fell, soft and frigid onto my skin and hair. I turned my head and gasped, expecting to see a wreckage on the floor where the roof had fallen in and I did, but more disturbing still were the foot thick spikes of ice twisting down from the ceiling like rows of razor sharp teeth.

Was I drugged? I wondered, vividly recalling the mohawk bartender as he made my two drinks. I couldn't recall him slipping anything into the glass.

"Suzume," Yuki said, standing as well, shivering and eyes wide. "Are you seeing this?"

I nodded and set my shoulders. I had no idea what was going on, but I knew enough to know that it wasn't going to be good.

"We need to get out of here," I said firmly. "

I turned back towards the clerk who had a startled expression on her face and caught her attention. "Ma'am are you hurt?"

"Whatever you do," she said, not looking at me and her accented voice fierce.

"Ma'am," I said, blinking, temporarily distracted from my nagging intuition telling me that danger was close by. "We need to leave-ah!"

The floor shook and ice shot up from the tile, smashing it into clouds of dust as they flew at us like claws of some giant monster. There was no exit behind us and the path towards the door was blocked with ice and rubble. We had no escape route this time and in the seconds it took for me to realize that, I moved, grabbing Yuki and flinging myself over her. I wasn't sure how sharp those spikes were, but hopefully my body would be dense enough to slow them and save Yuki.

I waited for pain, for the ice to tear into my body and shred me into nothing but it didn't come. Heart hammering, I opened my eyes and shut them again almost instantly as golden light blinded me.

This can't be real, but the pain radiating through my body told me otherwise. Slowly, I opened my eyes again, squinting against the glare and saw the clerk standing tall, a golden arch of light erupting from her hand and shielding us.

"You two okay?" she asked, tensing as another barrage of ice swiped the dome. The impact made the golden light ripple like water.

"I'm fine," I replied.

I grit my teeth and pulled Yuki upright. Her entire body was trembling and she wasn't speaking.

"Yuki," I said firmly, grabbing her by her shoulders to steady her. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head no, whimpering. I'd take it for now.

I looked back out at the swirl of snow outside the protective dome and saw a dark figure standing in the middle of it. The jeans and black sweatshirt told me who he was: the man I'd seen when we first entered the store. But he'd changed. Even through the gold tint of the dome, his skin was blue and his eyes were pure red, save the black slits that I assumed were pupils.

This is impossible, I thought but the world didn't line up with my logic. The blue-skinned man waved his hand again and another burst of ice came from nowhere, battering the dome. The clerk cried out as they made contact and the sound scared me as much as the red-eyed monster just a foot away. If this dome fell for even a second, we were done for. We'd wind up skewered on the ice or the building would fall on us and we'd be crushed.

As if she was reading my mind, the woman looked back at me. "Suzume, how's your throwing arm?"

"I throw a good fastball," I said, some rational part of me wondering just how she knew my name, but not caring in the same moment. I had bigger things to worry about. "What do you need to me to do?"

"Reach into my jacket pocket, there's something in there we can use to send him away." A hundred questions swirled through my mind but I ignored all of them and approached her as another set of icy claws swiped at her barrier, and reached into her pocket. My fingers instantly brushed a smooth and warm surface, and I pulled back and saw a glass orb the size of a baseball. It was smooth, save for some jagged symbol carved into the surface and swirls of rainbow were held inside.

"Got it, now what?" I yelled as another swipe of the ice claws hit the shield and the woman cried out again, sweat coating her face, limbs shaking, and the color of the light pouring from her hand started to fade and become dull. Whatever she was planning to do, we needed to do it fast.

She looked back at me, her eyes wide but her jaw was set in determination. "I'm going to let this shield down. When I do, throw that right at him and do it fast."

No shit. My heart climbed into my throat, my hand tightening around the glass ball as the shield flickered away. The monster in front of me roared, with rage or delight I didn't know or care. I drew back my arm, eyes fixed on the creature and threw the glass sphere for all I was worth. He swung his arm, blue-white light floating on his fingertips and the world moved in slow motion.

Short, thin ice spikes flew at us like daggers in the same moment and the glass shattered, filling the store with blinding, colorful light. The creature howled in pain.

I shut my eyes against it, heat washing over me like a wave and then the decimated store was entirely silent before my heart resumed beating and the sound echoed in my ears. Tremors wracking every inch of my body, I cautiously opened one eye and saw a black symbol was now seared into the floor where that monster had stood.

It was over.

In front of me, the clerk was on her hands and knees, sweat dripping from her face and breathing hard.

"Are you okay?" I asked, my voice unnaturally soft.

"I'll be alright, what about you two?"

"I'm fine, Yuki...?" But the question died on my lips as I saw that she was not standing beside me, but laying on the ground, back against the wall and breathing hard with a spike of ice lodged in her chest. "Yuki!" I dropped to my knees beside her, not even feeling the pain when I landed and pressed my hand to the wound, the blood slick against my skin. "Hang on, you're going to be fine."

Yuki drew a rattling breath and shook her head. "It's okay," she rasped, fumbling for my hand. I gave her my free hand, holding her cold fingers for all I was worth. Like I could keep her with me if I just held on hard enough.

"Yuki," I said her name, pleading as tears burned my face, more painful than any injury I'd ever had. Even being shot last winter. I'd take that bullet over and over again if I could save her now.

"Yuki please." I squeezed her cold fingers, but hers only twitched, too weak to try.

"It's okay," she said again, blood bubbling between her lips. But it wasn't, it wasn't okay and I opened my mouth to tell her so but no words came as I watched her chest still. Her hand relaxed fully in mine and her eyes were firmly on me but they saw nothing.

She was dead.

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New chapter, RIP Yuki :( As always, please do COMMENT and VOTE if you can!

Write on! :)