Page 72 of Greed of Giants

Jasper’s voice danced through my head.I will slow them down.

No. Don’t you dare. We need you. Meet us on the shore.

I watched the sky until Jasper flew by, obedient. We needed his speed to take us to the ruins of my former home.

Harlan thrust the oars at me. “Row.”

I moved, pulling hard on the oars as Harlan chanted, summoning those strange beasts from the deep. It was then I realized that Numen had no power here, not in these waters, the domain of the fire giants. No, this was where the beasts of the Guardians lay in slumber, waiting to rise, to thwart those who threatened the world.

Long, sinuous shapes surfaced and wormed toward the Four. I heard the clash of something, blade against scale,the wet crack of impact, high thin screams that did not belong to anything mortal. I kept my focus on the island and rowed.

Rain began to fall, fine and cold, prickling against the back of my neck. The mist that wrapped the island thickened around us like a closing hand.

The boat slammed into something hard, and the island rose before us.

“Go, go, go,” Harlan shouted.

Ilaris half fell from the boat. I caught her, lifting her in my arms as I sprinted for the shore where a winged creature waited. Would something wait for us at each shore?

“Prince Castor?” I breathed.

He stood with his legs apart, wings spread, bracing himself. His jaw was set, eyes hard like flint. He nodded at me and Ilaris.

I set her down gently, and she straightened, gathering the satchel tight to her chest. Jasper materialized from the shadows and trotted to her side, pressing his flank to her knee. She let one hand rest briefly in the fur at his shoulder, and I watched the subtle steadying of her breath.

“I will hold them off as long as I can,” Prince Castor said.

“Harlan will help, he’s the Guardian here.”

Prince Castor nodded. “We’ve met. You need to go to the volcano. Fire will seal the door, once and for all.”

I walked up to him and clasped his arm, shaking it firmly. “Thank you.”

Jasper barked once.

Ilaris glanced over her shoulder at the water, but the mist hid the threat, and the only path was forward.

Jasper carriedus through the sand dunes, past the small hut where Ilaris and I had spent that first evening together. I recalled the meal we’d shared, the moment she’d looked at me with desire in her eyes and leaned forward to taste me, and my fire had sparked, driving her back.

We moved down a dirt path through the wood, and the silence of the island crept around me like a second skin. The trees had grown from the ash of what I’d unmade. Every stone here had witnessed the end of my people. The quiet was not peaceful.

Memories flashed, one after another. Of the time before, the relentless drive, the addictive need for more. Of my return, the rage and hollowed grief that had turned everything it touched to ash. I had wanted to rage and rant, to burn everyone and everything. As if sufficient destruction could ease my pain and make the loss make sense.

I recalled the feeling of that fire banked in my chest, the overwhelming memories that had driven me into the water.

All along, there had been Ilaris.

She looked at my fire with curiosity instead of fear.

Even that first night, she’d tried to kiss me, tried to duck under my barriers and bring us together. The blood oath may have sealed the bond, but ever since waking, we were fated for a time like this. Somewhere, beneath my anger, I had known she meant something. And even now,with the sky burning and the Four at our backs and the mist closing in, some stubborn part of me still searched for the loophole, the alternative version of this where neither of us had to sacrifice everything. Where we walked out the other side.

I did not let myself think too long on the odds of that.

When we reached the stone archway of the ruins, the runes glowed, much like they had in the Sky Kingdom. I slid off Jasper’s back and pressed my palm flat against his nose. “This is how far you go,” I said out loud, for the benefit of Ilaris.

She did not weep, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his fur for a long moment. The silence of that goodbye was louder than any word she might have spoken. Then she stepped back, shouldered her satchel, and took my hand.

She looked up at the archway.