My mouth opens, and I prepare to scream. Only a sob comes out.
I close my eyes, thinking of all the times that Ra'Sa told me to look away. Damn him. Damn him for sparing me pain for a short while.
Damn him for making me love him.
The pressure on the bed around me shifts, and I squeeze my eyes tighter.
A whirring sound cuts through everything, and the pressure is lifted.
My eyes open at the exact second that Eneko turns back to the door. Something large and jagged crashes through the front part of my room. Wood splinters and sprays, and I duck into the bed, rolling over and grabbing a pillow as pieces spray all around. Something cuts across my back. I cry out.
Then, a meaty thud rattles the room.
**End of Trigger Warning**
I look up to see Ra’Sa bathed in silver moonlight. It shines down on him in thick beams. It’s almost unnatural, with his hands stretched forward and palms up as he commands a flurry of stones. They swirl around him like the whirlpool we use to clean clothes. The wind whips his short, silver hair against his face, and the stone in his chest glows bright like a fire.
Nudity equates to vulnerability, but for a god like Ra’Sa, I don’t think the rules apply.
My head turns to the side. I behold a giant ripped apart by the wood and stone. He's covered in blood, and parts of him have been reduced to a gory pulp. I gasp, and his chest rises.
Eneko lives.
"Ra'Sa," I sob, pulling the blanket over me. Stings and cuts cover my body, and it hurts when I step off the bed, but I don’t stop.
Stay there,he commands through our bond.
He cast his hands to the side. The stones fall, thudding in the snow, and he walks towards me.
Hewn from stone himself, beautiful as the finest sculpture, he walks right in front of Eneko.
Ra'Sa looks directly into the eyes of the foreman.
"You are pathetic," Ra'Sa says, voice full of venom.
Eneko wheezes and then chokes on his own blood. I watch, shaking, as he says, “I should have killed you when you brought her back to me.”
My mate sneers. “I should’ve killed you the second I saw your ugly face.”
Eneko spits blood. “The cause of the humans will fail, troll, and the giants will reign for a thousand years.”
"You're wrong," Ra'Sa says. "You will fail. You were born of the god of war and will die by his fiery blade. Only this time, you will not rise from the ashes."
His words ring like a prophetic song etched in rock.
Then he hesitates.
"Melisa," Ra’Sa coaxes, breaking me out of my shuddering revelry.
I meet his eye, terrified and shaken from everything that happened. His hand reaches out again—the stones on the ground stir.
“It is your right to kill him if you wish," he says.
My heart stutters in my chest.
"What? You won’t do it?”
Ra'Sa shakes his head. “I would if you ask me. But I have tasted your anger and felt your fear. I think… you deserve revenge.”