Page 28 of Greed of Giants

A cry escaped my lips and I looked down to find my shin bloodied, the skin broken, blood clotted. The thing in the water had wrapped around my ankle and yanked. I remembered now, the grip of it, squeezing my leg as it dragged me down.

“I have bandages,” I managed, pointing to my bag with a shaking hand. “I need to wrap this.”

Killian moved, and for a moment I thought he would come to me and tend the wound himself. Then he stopped, his whole body going rigid. He picked up my bag and carried it over, his expression so carefully controlled it almost looked like a mask. He set it down in front of me, opened it, then stepped back. “I couldn’t touch you without harming you. In the water it’s. . . It’s different but here. . . it’s not worth the cost.”

Understanding dawned on me. He hadn’t attempted to wrap my leg because he was afraid of burning me. Was his magic uncontrollable then? I hadn’t noticed it before, how he never touched me, at least not skin to skin. My fingers went to my lips. Was that why he hadn’t returned the kiss? The strong jolt I felt when I got too close. His warning of how dangerous he was made sense. I’d pretended tounderstand but now comprehension swept through me and the cruelty of it stole my breath away.

Bound to him with blood, close enough to feel the heat of him and yet untouchable. Forever untouchable.

I yanked bandages from my bag, pausing when Killian handed me a water skin, his fingers careful not to brush mine. I took a long drink, letting the cool water soothe my ruined throat, then splashed the rest across my leg.

The pain was immediate and so sharp I bit down on a gasp. Salt from the sea clung to the wound, and everything stung. I cleaned it as best I could while Killian watched, his gaze like a physical thing on my skin, heavy, warm, too attentive.

“You have other wounds,” he said carefully.

I frowned up at him. My tone sharp. “What do you mean?”

He touched his side. “Bruises across your torso. Here. And here.” His hand moved, mapping injuries he couldn’t have seen. “Why?”

Shame swept through me. I wrestled with the question as I wrapped my shin, pulling the bandage tight. Finally, I looked up, holding his gaze. I would not walk away from this. I would not be ashamed. “I told you about the poppy fields, the passing of my mother, the article I wrote that shamed the House of Scholars. It also humiliated a wealthy family and exposed their corruption. I’m not sorry I wrote the article. I’m not sorry I researched and investigated. But truth has consequences. It’s legal to pay someone to deal out punishment. Rules are, only women can hit women, only men can hit men. Bones cannot be broken, and no hitting or bruising where it can be seen in public. My faceis safe, but not my ribs, or anywhere clothes can hide the evidence.”

Killian’s eyes turned molten. Fire crackled across his skin, small flames dancing along his forearms, his shoulders. The temperature around us spiked as smoke rose from the dry leaves near his feet. Every muscle was taut, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “That is not legal,” he said, his voice a low growl, almost inhuman. “Beating someone for having an opinion, for daring to speak truth is never legal. What they did to you was wrong. It shouldn’t be allowed, should be punishable?—”

“Killian,” I said his name sharply, watching the flames spread. He looked like he was going to explode, but we were in a forest, surrounded by brush, trees, leaves—everything would light up with flames if he got angry, if he let his fire flare again. I couldn’t stomach another inferno. “The fire.”

He looked down at his hands and held them up, studying the flames that licked up his arms. For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t be able to stop it, that his rage would consume him. Then, slowly, the fire dimmed, leaving only the faint smell of smoke and scorched earth.

He started collecting wood. Stacking up fallen branches and creating a fire pit. It was an excuse, a reason to do something with his hands, to channel his fury into something productive. I used the reprieve to study our surroundings, to orient myself. We were deep in an old forest, the kind that might have been growing for centuries. It was as if we’d sprung up in the middle of it, for there was no path, no signs of human passage, just lush, beautiful greenery stretching in all directions.

“Where’s Harlan?” I asked, determined to change the trajectory of the conversation.

Killian’s hands stilled on the wood. “Harlan is a Guardian.”

I frowned. “What’s a Guardian?”

“An unexpected complication in our plans.”

His plans. Not mine. I didn’t want to be part of this.

Killian continued. “In the boat, did you understand the language he spoke?”

“No, it sounded garbled.”

“It was an old tongue, a chant. A language even my people rarely spoke. Only the magicians and sorcerers used it to call armies to their sides. The Guardians were put into place after my people fell. Their purpose was singular. Should we ever wake, if we dared to return, the Guardians would stop us.”

The words sank in slowly, their implications spreading like ripples. “How would you know about the Guardians if. . .if you were stone?”

“We all heard the verdict, the voice in the sky condemning us. My people may have imprisoned me for what I did, but the punishment was greater than my own sins.”

I puzzled over what he was explaining. “But that was a lifetime ago. How would Harlan know?”

“It’s likely his family line, passed from father to son, the weight of guarding, of taking an interest in anyone who showed an interest in the ruins.”

Oh.It all sank in. Harlan had already paid the ultimate price. He’d lost his daughter, his wife, his son. I felt guilty all over again.

“What about the creatures in the water? Were they sent by the Unmaking?”

Killian snapped his fingers, and a flame appeared in his hand. Ever so gently he lowered it to the wood, watching it catch fire. It was a warm night, we didn’t need the fire, but he opened the bag of food and started pulling up supplies. He was going to cook again. Despite the seriousness of our situation, my stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten anything since the fish this morning.