I charged through the ranks of dying, shrieking goblins, cutting down several as they got in my way. Looming above us, the nightmare ogre saw me coming and roared. Its tooth-studded club smashed down, and the tight, crowded hallway didn’t allow much room to dodge. I twisted aside, feeling the ground shake as the weapon crushed a few goblins into oily smoke, sending teeth tumbling down the corridor.
Darting forward, I lashed out at a pale, tree-stumpy leg, slicing my blade deep into the monster’s knee. On the other side of the ogre, I saw Puck do the same, diving between the monster’s legs and cutting its hamstrings as he rolled to his feet.
The ogre staggered. I jumped back as it fell to its knees, and saw Nyx streak by me as she went in for the kill. But then I saw the remaining goblins falling back, scurrying away from the ogre, and realized the danger too late.
“Nyx!” Puck called, having seen it as well. “Wait! Incoming!”
With a snarl, the ogre hunched its shoulders, and the teeth covering its body suddenly exploded outward like bits of shrapnel, filling the entire corridor. Instinctively, I raised a hand with a burst of winter glamour, throwing an ice shield in front of my face. I felt razor-sharp bits catch my leg, tearing through skin, and something hit my shoulder, sticking in the flesh, but the vital parts of me were behind a frozen shield. The tooth explosion struck the ice barrier, cracking and nearly shattering it, but the shield held. I heard Puck’s yelp of alarm as he did a ridiculous flailing dance, arms and legs jerking, but somehow managing to avoid the teeth that flew at him. Nyx dove into a clump of shadows and disappeared a moment before a storm of fangs peppered the wall she had vanished into.
“Meghan.” I spun, searching for my wife, hoping she had somehow escaped the explosion. She had been farther down the hallway, away from the worst of the blast, but I could still see the floors and walls of the corridor strewn with holes and places where the teeth had stuck in the plaster. My shoulder throbbed, and I could feel places where the teeth had found their mark, but barely felt the pain.
“Get down, Ash.”
Relief swept through me. The Iron Queen stood several paces away, surrounded by teeth and broken bits of wall, a gusting whirlwind surrounding her. It whipped at her hair and clothes, and the teeth trapped within glinted as the Iron Queen raised an arm, blue eyes narrowed and angry, and sent the shrapnel-laced windstorm right back at the ogre.
I pressed back into the wall as the cyclone roared by, pelting the ogre with a storm of its own teeth. The ogre howled, and the maw on its belly gaped wide again, accepting the wind and the bone fragments that flew into it. Several gashes opened on its rubbery skin from the bone bits that got through, but the majority of the shrapnel went into its cavernous jaws, which ground the teeth into smaller chunks before swallowing the whole mouthful.
“Oh, that’s disgusting. I think I’m gonna hurl.” Puck mock gagged, though his face did look slightly green. Raising its head, the ogre bellowed, and more teeth grew through its skin, rising along its arms, back, and shoulders like bristling tusks. Glancing at me, the Great Prankster offered one of his evil grins. “My, what big teeth it has. Hey, ice-boy, remember that time that rock giant tried swallowing you whole? I think this cookie monster is about to bite off more than it can chew, what do you think?”
I grimaced, knowing what he was suggesting. I hated doing this, but as I had discovered many times when facing powerful, seemingly invulnerable monsters, the inside was much squishier than the outside. “Fine,” I growled, as the tooth ogre swallowed the last of the bone shards and grinned down the hall at us. “Just give me an opening.”
“Try not to get eaten, ice-boy.” And Puck’s body burst into a flock of screaming ravens, which circled up and then flew straight as an arrow down the corridor. Right for the monster, which opened its enormous jaws once again. The shrieking ravens flew into the ogre’s mouth, tearing themselves apart on its fangs. Feathers flew everywhere, and the jaws opened even wider, snatching the birds from the air.
I charged through the screaming, flapping diversion, braced myself, and leaped into the monster’s jaws, ducking my head to avoid the gnashing fangs. The inside of the mouth was fetid and hot, with feathers, bones, and bits of teeth scattered everywhere. Without stopping to think about it too much, I raised my sword and drove it into the monster’s upper jaw, sinking the blade as deep as I could.
The monster recoiled. A garbled howl emerged from its throat, blasting me with hot air and swirling feathers. The jaws bucked, a slimy purple tongue rising up to slap me out of its mouth. I pulled my sword free and slashed at the disgusting thing, making it curl away with another howl from the monster.
With a roar, the jaws clamped shut, teeth grinding together, trapping me inside the jaws and plunging me into darkness. I felt the tongue move beneath me and realized the maw was about to swallow me whole. As I slid toward the back of its throat, I raised my sword and plunged it into the bottom jaw with a burst of winter glamour.
This time, the monster screamed. Light returned as the jaws opened with an agonized wail, revealing huge icicles piercing its mouth and throat. The ogre staggered, and I dove out of the jaws as the monster toppled backward, hitting the ground with a crash and the clatter of breaking teeth. Rolling to my feet, I spun, ready to defend myself or attack, but there was no need. The ogre was on its back, twitching in its death throes. Its belly jaws gaped, clenching and unclenching madly, snapping at nothing. Broken ice spears, bloody and glittering, jutted from its mouth, piercing its throat, its cheeks, through the top of its jaw.
Nyx suddenly appeared, dropping onto the ogre’s head and driving her moonlight blades through the jaws on its face. The huge creature gave one last twitch, both maws snapping, before it slumped, purple tongue lolling out of the belly jaws, and finally stopped moving.
I breathed out slowly and sheathed my blade, watching as the ogre’s body rippled, turned white for a moment, and then dissolved into thousands of teeth, spreading in a pile across the floor. I felt the rage and hungry glamour in the air fade, though it still lingered within, ravenous and angry.
I turned, and was nearly knocked over as Meghan threw herself against me, hugging me hard enough that my ribs twinged. “Dammit, Ash,” she breathed. “My heart nearly stopped when I thought that thing had eaten you. Don’t do that again.”
Despite the darkness still coiling inside, I chuckled. “This from the girl who flung herself at the giant beetle that nearly crushed her,” I said. “Or went right for the head of the giant snake. Or stood in the path of the charging Minotaur because she was certain it would stop.”
“It did stop, didn’t it?” She eyed me in both annoyance and relief, and pulled a feather from my hair. “I’ll admit, that was a little disturbing. Let’s hope that was the last surprise this place has for us,” she murmured.
Nyx and Puck rejoined us, Puck still making a face every time his boot crunched teeth underneath it. “Ugh. Agh. Gross. Okay, I’ve heard losing teeth is a fairly common nightmare, but this is ridiculous,” he muttered.