Chapter 74

My face hit the snow with tremendous force. For a moment, my world went too dim for sight or sound, but I vaguely heard a ringing in my ears and felt the large mass pressed against my body ease up somewhat, then redouble in its efforts to crush me.

But nothing cracked. In neither my face nor in my body, nothing seemed to give way, of that I was fairly sure. Probably.

I gasped for breath and struggled to keep my eyes open. Black spots danced across my vision. Instinctively, my hand began reaching out across the earth, hoping to find some kind of purchase – anything – that might serve me.

The man above me dug his claws haphazardly into my neck, feeling around clumsily. His movements seemed desperate, hasty. If anything,