Page 45 of Greed of Giants
Waves swirled, rising higher than the platform, yanking Killian into the vortex. I thought of Jasper as we were sucked in, and the truth of the situation struck me. We were going to die.
I wrapped my hands around the Heart and squeezed. Would it save us? I didn’t know how to use it, how to invoke the magic within the relic, and the giant had warned me against using it until it was time. Wasthisthe time?
The vortex spun tighter, drawing me closer to Killian. Miraculously, our heads remained above water, but then came a terrible sucking sound. The water vomited us up into the air and over the other side of a cliff.
The sensation of flying, then falling, made my stomach flip. I lost all sanity and dropped my satchel. The Heart’s warmth pressed against my ribs as I tucked it into my breastplate. Panic filled me as I kicked, clawing the air for something, anything, solid. Greenery rushed around me far too fast, and once again, blackness took me.
22
Killian
White-hot agony flooded my body as consciousness returned. The throbbing in my skull pounded like a death drum. Each pulse sent flares of pain up my legs, into my back, through my arms until my fingers tingled. I kept my eyes closed, drawing shallow breaths to manage the assault while memory pieced itself together.
I’d been fighting Maren, Lady Justice. Her words enraged me, and, worse, she refused to release me. Even fire against her vines would not persuade her. Meanwhile, I’d heard Ilaris chanting, saw her awaken Theron and speak to him.
And there lay my confusion.
Instead of coming to my aid, Theron climbed back into his mountain and flooded the Verdant Maw. The volume of water he’d released meant the place would be buried forever, impossible to visit again unless the waters receded. Unlikely in such a lush land.
When the pain dulled to something bearable, I opened my eyes. Blue sky above me, no trees in sight. To my right, green hills swelled against the horizon. To my left. Ilaris.
She sat upright, arms curled around her knees, her cheek resting against one leg as she watched me with those soft brown eyes. When our gazes met, she lifted her head. Something like relief flickered across her features, then vanished beneath something else. Wariness.
It struck me harder than the fall had. Those eyes that had watched me undress in the silver-lit water now studied me like a problem she had not yet solved.
What had Theron told her?
I studied her. She’d been wearing armor and didn’t look hurt at all. A fragile mortal versus me, a giant prince, yet I was the one lying broken in the grass while she sat there, watching. The pieces of her armor rested beside her.
“You’re hurt,” she said. “What can I do to help?”
Despite the reassurance of her words, the wariness remained, a shadow between us. “Nothing. Just time. It will fade.” I kept my voice steady, unwilling to let it waver when uncertainty already hung so thick. I waited a beat. “What happened?”
Ilaris made a low sound in her throat. “That’s a complicated question. I was going to ask you the same.”
The pulsing in my head threatened to drown her out, yet I felt more attuned to what she wasn’t saying. My fingers dug into the earth, anchoring me. The pain faded ever so slightly, as though it were being pushed down into the ground, channeled through my fingers. I remained that way for a while, embracing the silence, wondering if she would let the words spill free.
She didn’t.
“Why did Theron kick us out?” I asked finally.
“I asked him about the Unmaking, the sealed doors. He claimed they were your concern, not his.”
Bitterness hardened in my chest. Would my brethren turn their backs on me? “Did he explain why?”
“He told me to ask you, but that’s not all.” She paused, her fingers tightening across her knees. “He also told me to read the scroll. All of it. For an explanation. Are you familiar with the words? Do you know what was written?”
Alarm rushed through me. I pushed myself upright, gritting my teeth against fresh flares of pain.
Ilaris’s eyes widened, and she looked like she might stand and back away, but she didn’t.
“I don’t know what’s written on the scroll,” I explained. “Where is it? Did anything survive our exile?”
Her gaze dropped to the grass. “I lost my bag when we went over the cliff. And I don’t know where Jasper is. We lost the food too.”
Disaster. Without the scroll, we had nothing. No way to wake the other giants. “We need that scroll.”
“I know.” Her voice carried an edge. “I was afraid to read it before, but now I’m just confused. I thought our quest was to wake the giants in each kingdom, to give us a chance to fight the Unmaking. To prevent them from gaining enough strength to breach the doors and flood this world. But the stone giant, he did not seem inclined to help. He told me . . . ” She paused and took a breath, as though the words were difficult to shape. “He gave me the Heart.”
