Lightbringer Read Online Free Page B

skin and nail away from the quick. He gasped for air but the pull lasted only a moment before the Walker drew his hand away in disgust.
    “Too old,” the Walker snarled, taking Piotr by the back of his neck and shaking him like a naughty kitten. “No years from you!”
    “Sorry ’bout that,” Piotr slurred and the Walker flung him away. Once outside the range of that intractable cold, Piotr could feel his will returning with the thawing of his limbs. Crawling on hands and knees, he made his way towards Lily, who'd collapsed in a heap only a few yards away. She appeared unconscious.
    “No use,” hissed Piotr's Walker. “No souls here. No life here. Only Rider filth.”
    “The White Lady will shriek,” the other said, ignoring Piotr and nudging Lily with the toe of one white boot. “We should lick their bones in retribution.”
    “Poshyel k chyertu,” Piotr cursed, reaching Lily's side and blocking her protectively. “And you can rot there, for all I care!” Forgetting Elle's dagger entirely, Piotr fumbled for Lily's bone knives, still clutched in her fists.
    His hand was kicked away. Piotr stubbornly stretched for the knives again but the Walker's foot thrust down, grinding his wrist against the dirt. Skeletal fingers clad in loose gloves of their own rotting flesh pressed on his shoulders, pinning him to the ground. Behind him Lily moaned, eyes fluttering open.
    “Piotr?”
    “Da?” he gasped, trying not to breathe through his nose. The nauseating stench was all around them now, the cold seeping again into Piotr's bones and thoughts, slowing his reaction time to a crawl, and trapping him like a fly in molasses. Frigid molasses.
    Her voice came at him from a million miles away. “Piotr? What's that light?”
    Flush against his teeth Piotr's tongue felt numb and dumb, his lips frozen shut, forming garbled words in slow motion. “What…light?”
    But he could feel it now, the odd warmth that tickled his skin, melting the cold of the Watchers away in rivulets of sharp white light. The pinning hands and foot were abruptly gone, stripped away, and Piotr took advantage of their absence, staggering to his feet. The area lit up in a corona, spilling around corners and through windows, shining with a fierce insistence across the dusty, hardpan yard. It stretched impossibly far, illuminating even the distant highway with bright, clean light.
    “Whatever it is, it began glowing and they perked up like hounds scenting a bitch. They followed it.” Lily's voice trembled. Groaning, she pointed in the direction of the southernmost building. “The Walkers left.”
    Puzzled, Piotr turned and squinted in the direction she pointed. She spoke the truth. “Maybe they weren't hungry after all?”
    “Impossible.” She lapsed into her native tongue, querying. When Piotr, uncomprehending, didn't reply, she switched to English with a frown. “The fox does not relinquish the hare so easily when the kill is moments away. Why would they leave like that?”
    Piotr leaned down and scooped Lily into his arms. Though corded with muscle, his old mentor was still light as thistledown, slight, and easy to lift. “Who cares? Let's leave before they change their minds.” Thankfully her leg was already beginning to mend, layers of effervescent tissue bubbling forth over the bone. Healing for their kind was slow without the touch of one of the Lost. Still, he was glad it had been just the two of them. A Walker scenting the Lost often went into berserker frenzy. Piotr couldn't imagine having to protect both Lily and a child against one Walker, much less against two of them.
    They had to get out of there, NOW.
    “Piotr, wait.” Lily struggled in his grip. “I cannot leave. For many nights I have walked with the moon to track those monsters here.”
    “You…Lily, why? You're still camped out in San Jose, da? Why would you chase a pair of Walkers all this way?”
    “The death dealers took Dunn. I will not leave without learning his