My eyes followed a trail of footprints that were slowly disappearing underneath the falling snow. The footprints stamped in the powder looked like someone had walked to the mouth of the cave, stood there, and then retreated intothe wilderness.
My stomach dropped. I certainly did not make those footprints and Riyan’s feet were much too large to leave printsthat small.
“Riyan,” I whispered. “I think someone hasbeen here.”
Riyan’s head whipped around and peered out of the mouth of the cave. He crawled over and shielded me with his body. He squeezed his shoulders through the jagged, narrow opening of the cave and rose to his feet outside. He unsheathed Endre’s Revenge and examined thefading footprints.
“You’re right,” Riyan said in a low voice. “Those are bootprints. I knew we were being watched before. A man has been here—or something pretending to be aman, anyway.”
I dared to step near the mouth of the cave to get a closer look. Daigen could not wear boots on his hooves, although he could have used magic to change his form. We came to the top of the mountain looking for him, but maybe he was also lookingfor us.
Something was panting and running toward me when the ravens had attacked me further down the mountain. And I swore a hand had grabbed my shoulder…was that Daigen too? Had he been following us? Was he the one tripping on rocks on the pathbehind us?
Could have been Daigen, could have been a number of strange creatures that lurked on the mountain. But what if—it was impossible, but…what if Derrick had climbed the mountain torescue me?
I wrapped my hand around the cold bronze hilt of the Hyton dagger. I could almost taste the bitter bite of the metal as my thumb ran over the bull’s head. No, Derrick would never set foot on Nordingaard. But the memory of his hand tangled in my hair and his breath over my lips as he whispered that I was his flashed through my mind and suddenly I was notso sure.
Derrick was not the anxious boy I had met in Ravenwood Manor seven years ago—he had grown into a true Hyton bull. He was powerful, he fixated on problems, and he did not stop until he got whathe wanted.
He was exactly the kind of man who would go to the place West of the Moon and East of the Sun to save hislost bride.
Riyan cleared his throat. “We need to move. If these prints are our only lead to Daigen, we have to follow them beforethey disappear.”
He scooped me up in his left arm again. He held me close to his chest and shrugged his shoulder so his cape fell over my body. He tucked the wool cape around me and left only my face exposed tothe cold.
The waning moon hung high in the sky and the sparkling snow softly crunched under Riyan’s footsteps as he followed the footprints into a grove of trees. Each snowflake tingled my skin as it melted into me. The leafless branches of the trees around the spring were warped and bent like they were frozen in place during amoonlit dance.
Snowflakes dusted my eyelashes as I looked through the dark and twisted trees for any sign of movement, but everything was still in the midnight glow. No twigs snapped, no pine needles rustled, and even the wind held its breath as Riyan carefully walked through the realmof magic.
The trail of footprints disappeared into a tall rock formation that stretched as far left as I could see throughthe snowfall.
“Fucker must have hidden in the rocks,” Riyan growled. “You think he would be excited to see me after all this time. I bet he would be shocked at howbigI’ve gotten.”
I rolled my eyes at his terrible joke, but my stomach was hollow from fear. Riyan crept in the shadows of the tall rocks as he kept his eyes low. I scanned the rocks at my eye level, looking for any traceof red.
Our path sloped upward. Endre’s Revenge gleamed in the moonlight. The night wastoo quiet.
Riyan’s head snapped toward an open snowy field to his left. His heart pounded in his chest even though his breathwent still.
He did not have to tell me what caused him to freeze in place. In the distance were two towering boulders with an ominous fog billowingbetween them.
We were at the battlefield where mybrothers died.
“Sera, I need to warn you now,” he whispered through a tight throat, “when the giants come,don’t scream.”
My trembling hand instinctively gripped the hilt of the Hyton dagger, as if it could do anything againsta giant.
“They’ll smell me and think I’m alone, so they won’t come after you as long as you’re quiet,” he said, sounding as if he had to force each word out of his lips. “Don’t scream.”
I let go of the Hyton dagger and slipped my hand into my pocket to find the scrap of embroidered fabric. I traced the flowers with my thumb, willing myself to not let fear overcomemy sense.
The first stomp echoed even through the suffocating calm of the snowfall. The earth trembled. More thunder rolled like aslow stampede.
A group of giants was coming through thefoggy pass.
Riyan’s muscles shifted and he lowered his chin. My heart pounded in time with his, but instead of my body seizing in fear, it vibratedwith energy.
“Here they come,” Riyan said in an exhale. “Hide, but don’t make asinglesound untilyou’re safe.”
