A second troll leaped. It slammed into the windshield. Tires screeched. Two other trolls hit the truck body, denting the sides. The truck wobbled precariously. Then gravity took over. It slammed onto its side and slid down the road into the grass.
The trolls instantly went for the driver in the truck’s cab. Several eagerly peered up at Neven and me as we dove toward them. One troll grinned, wild and lopsided.
They hadn’t lost interest in me at all. They’d set a trap.
And I had no choice but to fall for it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Neven’s speed worked in our favor. Most trolls hadn’t reached the truck yet.
Maybe we could get the driver to safety before that changed.
“How do you want to do this?” The wind distorted Neven’s voice.
The truck’s headlights glared across the grass, illuminating approaching trolls in the distance.
How did I want to do this? Dive toward a dozen angry, oversized trolls? The only troll I’d fought successfully had been the small one at Aunt Lina’s. Since then, all I’d done was flee and die. Doubt washed over me.
I bit my lip hard to focus. If I did nothing, that driver was dead. End of.
“Drop me on the truck. I’ll get the driver out.” My words tasted false and empty. “Keep the trolls busy?”
Neven folded her wings and shot toward the truck like an arrow. Cool air blew at my face.
On Neven’s first go-over, she snatched a troll from the truck and smacked off others with her tail. On her second go-over, she grabbed a couple with her hind legs and flung them onto the road. The third time, the dented top of the fallen truck—formerly its sidewall—was empty enough for her to land. She slowed, approaching the truck legs-first. The gusts of wind from her wings knocked a small troll into the grass.
“Go,” she told me.
I slid off her back and thumped onto the vehicle’s cargo box. To my right, trolls were climbing onto the truck, making excited grinding noises.
The surface was slick. My foot slipped into a dent caused by the trolls bashing into the metal, but I caught myself, stumbling and clambering my way to the truck’s cab. I reached the passenger’s-side door on all fours and looked down through the window. I couldn’t tell whether the driver was awake. Below him, the driver’s-side window had fractured into a granulated pattern and pressed the grass flat.
Movement in the corner of my eye. Before I could turn, I heard the beating of wings, a strangled gnarly yell, then the sound of something hitting the grass. Thanks, Neven.
The door handle wouldn’t give. I whipped out my knife and sliced it along the edge of the door to take care of any locks. I pulled the door up easily and wedged my shoulder underneath.
“Are you OK?” I called urgently. “Sir?”
He moaned. Slowly, his head turned.
I didn’t get the chance to ask again. A tat-tat-tat sounded to my left. A troll almost my height was climbing the truck. My leg shot out. It hit the troll in the head, knocking away a chunk of earth. The troll recoiled—then leaped. Blindly, I lashed out with the knife. The troll clipped my shoulder. Moments later, its arm slid down its body, crumbling into dirt. I slashed again, again. Finally, the remains of the troll rolled down the windshield.
I yanked the passenger door open again and slid into the cab legs-first. My feet scrambled for a foothold and settled on the gear shift. I balanced myself with one hand on the console and the other on the passenger’s-seat headrest.
Above me, the door fell shut. The cab shook from the impact.
A troll’s face hovered over the window. I looked up and swallowed. We were only inches apart. I heard the troll’s claws scrape against the metal. If the trolls were smart enough to set a trap, they’d be smart enough to open that door, too. This had been a bad idea, I was such a clueless, pointless—
Something dark blurred overhead and slammed into the troll. Abruptly, the creature was gone. Neven was still out there, helping.
I squirmed to look down at the driver.
“What was that?” he slurred. His eyes rolled toward me, unfocused. “On the road. One of them . . . The things, right?”
“One of the things,” I confirmed.
“Mmyeah. Saw them near Wellsboro. Smaller, though.”
“Hold very, very still, please.” I slashed his seat belt. It whipped up and out of the way.
The driver gaped at the windshield behind me. “Wh—whhh—”
I turned. On the other side of the windshield, two trolls—no, three—sat in the grass. The smallest pressed its nose to the glass, its grin stretching to reveal moss-stained teeth, while the other two began attacking the windshield, their eyes furious and excited at once. Whenever they crawled back to gain momentum, the truck headlights glared into their faces, illuminating every last crumb of dirt.
“Don’t look at them, all right?” I didn’t take my own advice. The trolls were just inches away. We were so screwed.
“All the Damford shits are this size?” he murmured. “Damn. You weren’t kidding about needing this steel.”
“Steel? Oh!” Why else would a box truck be driving down winding roads into a troll hellhole in the pitch of night, with the entire state mid-crisis? This was the truck Tara and Torrance had mentioned, delivering extra steel to the people of Damford.
My first thought was: Shit. It’ll take even longer to reach them now.
My second thought was: Right now, we may need it more than they do.
“We’ll be safe for a li’l bit,” the driver said. “These trucks’re built to survive moose. I mean. They can’t. ’Cause moose are moose. But it’s the goal.”
“We need to climb out this door. Are you hurt? Can you do that?”
My legs trembled from keeping myself in this awkward crouch. The faster we escaped, the better. More trolls were arriving by the second. All around me, I heard the scratch-scrape-screech of claws against metal. Cutting open the windshield would give us an easy escape
