“What is it?”
Gabriol turned his head so slowly, Lerek had the uncanny sense he might not be the one controlling his own body. When Gabriol spoke, Lerek felt certain he was right.
“Achandia,” Gabriol said in a voice so unlike his own, Lerek stepped back a few paces. He clutched his cloak and stared at the mercenary.
“Achandia,” he said again, this time in a whisper as if speaking to himself.
He lifted the shroud, holding it aloft in both hands, the fabric sheer and bathed in the glow of the braziers. Lerek watched as Gabriol whispered in a foreign language, his mutterings growing more intense the longer he spoke.
Something cool brushed the back of Lerek’s neck, and he jumped, grabbing his neck as his head whipped around, searching for the reason.
The fire in the braziers grew, and the room was almost uncomfortably warm. The hairs on Lerek’s arms rose, and he scratched at his forearms.
Birds took flight behind him. Lerek spun around to see the shadows of the birds, their cries fading away to leave behind an eerie silence broken up by Gabriol’s chanting. They disappeared as if only shadows.
“Gabe—”
Lerek turned and blinked. The fire in the braziers went out.
And Gabriol was gone.
“Gabriol!”
Lerek lurched forward, his eyes wide as he stared at the spot Gabriol had stood, then stumbled around the altar, the smell of the fire still in the air but the mercenary was nowhere to be found.
Lerek staredat the spot where Gabriol had been standing. Realizing his jaw hurt because his mouth hung open, Lerek snapped it shut, his mind whirling with what he’d just seen. All his life, the legends of the gods that had ruled this realm had been just that: legends. Stories they’d all been told to explain away the unexplainable.
And yet he could not deny what his own eyes had seen these past few months.
Lerek lifted a shaking hand to rake through his already disheveled hair. The quiet permeating the temple was unsettling, expectant. Glancing around, Lerek felt an overwhelming need to leave. He took a step back, his eyes darting over the marble columns and faded mosaic tiles. As if hurried along by instinct, Lerek turned, striding across the empty chamber and down the steps onto the snow-covered ground.
Lifting a hand to his chest, Lerek’s breath puffed out in thin wisps of smoke as he cast his eyes about the lonely winter landscape for his mount.
Lerek pursed his lips and took a step as the ground rumbled beneath him. He spread his arms for balance, crying out as a sharp snap of wind crackled behind him.
Spinning around, Lerek gawped at the sight of the swirling vortex that disappeared as swiftly as it had formed. Lerek stared at the man who stumbled forward, a giant with bronze greaves over thick leather sandals.
As he rose to his full height, dread speared through Lerek as the man’s bronze breastplate flashed in the weak sunlight, turning to face him. Ash-blond hair flowed onto the man’s large shoulder plates, a deep red cape settling around him like a sentient being as the man flexed his immense arms above bronze and blood-red studded vambraces.
Stepping forward, the giant’s steps made the marble tremble at his feet, and Lerek’s gaze widened as he trembled.
Hazel eyes, threaded with red lights swirling over the irises, stared at Lerek. The man’s mouth twisted into a sneer as if the sight of Lerek disgusted him.
Lerek thought his heart might have stopped.
Long minutes passed. Then, the giant stepped close enough Lerek had to tip his head far back to look up at him. A fine shudder ran through his frame.
“Bow, mortal!”
Lerek’s body moved without thought, sinking to his knees with his head bowed.
Quaking, Lerek dared not move.
“Where is my wife?” the giant asked in a voice that would give Lerek nightmares for the rest of his life.
Before he could respond, the giant grabbed hold of Lerek’s hair, snapping his head back to glare down at him. “Where are mydaughters?”
Lerek’s mouth worked, but speech eluded him. He was a mass of shaking limbs, and he could not form a coherent thought to save his life.
