Page 46 of Greed of Giants
Slow awareness came over me. He’d given her one ofthe divine gifts when I specifically told her we were not to touch them. This was an omen. My first instinct was to argue, to claim she was wrong. I might have, if it had been her word alone. But Maren’s cryptic words came back to me.
“What do you know, Killian?” Ilaris asked, her voice soft. Sad.
Thiswas the wariness in her gaze.
The pounding in my head increased, the reminder like the sound of the Unmaking battering against the door. Determined to find a way through.Thud. Thud. Thud.Memories rippled as I closed my eyes. There was more, wasn’t there? Whispers. Fingers pointing. Tense conversations as I was chained. There were no answers, only punishment, knowledge of the other giants, and what must be done.
Or what Ithoughthad to be done.
I’d inferred my understanding from fragments, my limited knowledge of how the world worked. But I’d been young then. Protected. Shielded from truth. And even though I’d been taught the histories, I hadn’t truly applied myself.
So I’d missed something Theron knew. Something Maren understood too.
Instead of fighting her, I should have listened, asked questions. I needed to find her again.
I faced Ilaris, the truth bitter on my tongue. It stung to humble myself, to admit I was wrong. Mortals deserved nothing from my kind. We scorned them. We mocked them. But Ilaris was different. We were bound by a blood oath, yes, but it was more than that. I felt a kinship, ayearning I found difficult to ignore. I wanted her conversation, her companionship.
Her trust.
“This journey, this awakening, did not go the way I expected. It’s clear there is more happening than I fully understand.” I met her eyes. “We need the scroll.”
“Who was that woman?”
“Maren, Lady Justice. She’s the woman in blue who’s been following us.”
Ilaris drew a sharp breath. “She didn’t look like the woman I saw in the village. How do you know her? Is she a Guardian?”
“She can shift her shape, blending in where needed. The vines obey her, and she always wears blue. She’s not a giant, nor is she a Guardian. She moves outside of those confinements, and if she survived the flood, she might explain. Or she might try to stop us.”
“We need help,” Ilaris said, pressing her cheek against her folded hands, her shoulders curving inward. “This is too much for two of us to carry. We are lost, you’re hurt, and we have nothing.”
She was losing courage, losing hope. The sight of it, her certainty crumbling, her faith in me eroding, sent a cold blade through my ribs.
“I will escort you home,” I conceded. “If the blood oath will release you, I shall release you.”
She straightened, her gaze snapping to mine. “You would do that? What about the Unmaking?”
“It is my responsibility, my journey.”
She studied me through narrowed eyes. “Let’s not make any premature decisions.”
Let’s.
She wasn’t giving up on this yet. Relief moved through me. She still carried that scholarly hunger for knowledge, that relentless need to understand.
A dark shape shifted in the sky, and I tilted my head, letting out a hiss as pain shot through me at the sudden movement. The shape landed and trotted toward us.
Jasper. With Ilaris’s satchel in his mouth.
She cried out and ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck.
Your wings came in.I said.Timely.
Jasper dropped the satchel, tail wagging as he leaned into her caress.She’s much happier to see me than she is to see you.
A jab.
I chuckled and regretted it as my ribs protested.
