I stumble back, looking up to see a figure rise out of the ground, made of blue ice and gray stone, with chunks of snow clinging to his face and chest. It’s a mighty figure of a man. If it can be called a man when he is as large as the sky and made of stone…
A god.
His eyes are piercing blue, glowing so brightly that they can be seen from down here.
Out of the corner of my eye I see myself and Marcello step back. “It worked,” the other Laduga breathes.
I turn my head to see her yank down her sleeve to reveal the exposed flesh of her wrist. It is pale white and unblemished.
“It worked!” I cry again as the giant moans so loudly it shakes the mountains, like thunder.
Then I open my eyes to find myself staring at the shadowy beams of the roof of the Werma’s hut above my head.
I shift slightly, sitting up to peer over the wall of pillows. Marcello is there, his mouth slightly agape. A soft snore escapes his lips. He does not stir at all, not seeming to sense my gaze on him. I settle back down, letting out a little sigh as I fold my hands over my stomach.
For the first time, in perhaps my life, I find myself actually thankful for my ability to glimpse the future, because that glimpse has finally given me hope.
I need someone’s finger, I need a runic stone, and then I need to raise a god.
Once I do that, I’ll be able to reclaim my future, I will not have to be at the mercy of a marriage I do not want.
And I can divorce Marcello without having to fall in love with him. Only then will my life be able to return to the way I would like it to be.
Chapter Sixteen
Where Your Enemy Lays His Head
Mysenseofpeacequickly fades as soon as I open my eyes the next morning. I find my vision filled with red material, a scent that is wholly unfamiliar fills my nose where I expected nothing but the Werma’s bitter herbal stench.
This new smell tickles my nostrils with a sharp but not necessarily unwanted tang. I can’t quite place what it is, but it’s almost like cedar.
Something moves against my back in slow, but steady circles, and I stiffen when I realize that it’s something rubbing my back.
No, notsomething. Someone.
Marcello.
I push myself up, moving so fast that I get lightheaded. But I can’t block out the image of Marcello lying there staring contemplatively at the ceiling, his one hand resting on his stomach. The other falls away from where it had been rubbing patterns into my back.
That strange red material which had smelled so much nicer than the Werma’s fabrics had been his shirt. I had been lying against his shoulder. I look around for the wall of pillows but find them discarded in every direction. One even wound up on the floor.
Marcello pushes himself up slightly, stretching the arm I had been lying on. And then he has the audacity to smile.
“Oh, hello, good morning. You seemed to be sleeping so peacefully, I didn’t want to wake you.”
I move to the edge of my bed, shoving my hand through my hair. I resist the urge to yell at him, after all, I was the one who said he could come into the bed with me.
And all because I was giving some credence to the Werma’s words.
Dragon fire, this is why I should never listen to the Werma.
No, I’m going to find some other way to save my life. One that does not include Marcello or the Werma’s plans. She had mockingly said that only raising a god would save me if I refused to fall in love.
Well, my vision last night showed me that was possible.
I push out of bed with a new purpose, moving to the cupboard and pulling out the hunks of bread and dried meat the Werma has stored. I put them on a cloth in the middle of the table. It isn’t enough for any sort of long journey without supplementing with hunting, but fortunately Drekki and Worm are exceptional hunters so I probably won’t have to do it myself so long as I can convince them not to eateverythingthat they catch.
There’s just one last part of the journey I need to work through. What I’m going to do with Marcello. I’d like to just turn him lose now that I no longer need him. Let him find his own way back to his people while I set out to raise this giant, and we both forget last night ever happened.
