Ganora had used the tears that Astrid had swallowed to enchant her baby. She made Riyan too large. It washerpower in his veins that made him impossibly strong, lightning fast, and forced him to painfully grow every time he was afraid.
A screaming memory pulled itself toward me. Through the shining surface was a red face with black horns. I held my arms tightly over my stomach as I looked through the memory like a window, watching through Astrid’s eyes.
Over the screaming, Daigen tried his best to soothe Astrid. “You’ll be all right, I promise. Just trust me.”
Daigen held up a gleamingReginbani.The screaming got louder. I tightened my hold over my abdomen. Even though Iwas too afraid to touch the memory, I couldfeelthe slice of the knife across my lower belly.
It was like being lit on fire.
The memory started to float away and the pain subsided. Right before the memory disappeared into the darkness, I spotted a giant, but underdeveloped baby in Daigen’s claws.
Riyan.
My chest went tight. My limbs shook. It was too much.
Before I could escape, ribbons of voice surrounded me.
“How can I be with child, Ragnar? I am not married!”
“Do not worry, summer break is coming soon. As soon as Selection Night is over, I will sneak out of the palace and we will go up the mountain together. As long as we get those tears from the well, I can order Fraleigh to marry us.”
A tiny fragment of memory floated by—Astrid hurriedly tying a crimson ribbon to a branch of a tree outside of Bloodstone Fortress. A leather skein was slung across her back and her sword was attached to her hip.
She was ascending the mountain—she needed the tears to marry Ragnar.
But why was she going alone?
Ragnar’s voice whispered around me. “I will come back for you, I promise.”
Astrid walked further through the woods outside the fortress and tied her second ribbon right above the mountain trail. The twin crimson signals clearly marked her path for someone to find, but Astrid looked over her shoulder and waited.
“I will come back for you, I promise.”
Astrid’s lip trembled, but she gripped the hilt of her sword and started her climb.
I slammed my eyes shut. I could not take it anymore. I had to get out.
“I promise.”
I forced out a breath and let go of my magic. My white flame blinked out and I floated out of the tar pit of Astrid’s mind.
I took in another breath and opened my eyes. My feet were on the floor. My hand was in Astrid’s.
But my knees were weak…and I could not stand…
A hand with long fingers caught my back before I could fall backward.
“I thought you would have lasted longer than that,” Daigen said as he set me down on a cushioned footstool. “You have the emotional capacity of a teacup if watching a few memories exhausted your power like this.”
I glared at him, even though my vision was swimming. “Emotions made me weak, so I stopped having them.”
Daigen scoffed. “You never stopped having them, you just suppressed them.” He ran a hand through his white hair and sighed. “What did you see?”
My eyes found Astrid. “Ganora punished her…cursed her baby as punishment for stealing the tears.”
“Good, you sawthatmemory.” Daigen’s heel clipped against the floor. “Now you know why your big boy was so big. Giants made from magic and mud were unstable. They could only travel a certain distance from the mountain before they crumbled. So, Ganora made a new giant out of flesh and bone.”
I furrowed my brows. Suddenly Ganora’s curse on an unborn baby seemed less like cruelty and more deliberate. Not only had Ganora made him big, but she also made him the strongest and fastest man alive. He was just like one of her giants, no, better.
