I woke, blinking blearily. Strong arms tightened around my body.
“Thorsteinn?” I mumbled. “Where are we?”
“Safe. high in a tree.” He sat cradled in the crook of a giant branch. My legs dangled off his lap, my feet swinging in midair. Far below, the mist swirled around the trunk. “Nothing can touch us here.” I shivered, and he palmed the back of my head, steadying me. “How’s your leg?”
In a flash it returned—the mist, our route along the hill, the monsters who were really Thorsteinn and Vik. My broken leg, their fangs flashing as they bit me.
With a gasp, I grabbed my neck. The pain was gone. There was no broken skin, no blood, no sting.
“There’s still a mark,” Thorsteinn told me, faint amusement in his tone. “But the healing worked.”
“How—?” I gaped further as I touched my leg. The b
