“You won’t forget that I refused to hurt you?” My eyebrows scrunch together.
“If they don’t buy our story, they’ll kill us both,” she spits.
I clamp my jaw shut. “I’ll be convincing.”
“Hide the gear. We’re leaving the trees.”
I suck in a sharp breath and do as she says. Once finished, I turn back to Melisa, she wraps her arms around my neck. I bend down, slide one arm under her legs, and hoist her up closer to me.
“I am sorry for your people,” I say softly.
She meets my gaze. “Me too. Now, head down this hill and turn to the left. You’ll see the slave pens. Before you arrive, there is a hill with a fence surrounded by tightly packed trees. Eneko’s cabin is in that area.”
She adjusts her grip, clearly waiting for me to move.
I take a deep breath.
Our short time alone together is gone. It’s been… it’s honestly been a mess.
As I look back out at the smoking remains of the slaves and the burnt houses, I think of the gruesome things giants had done to my people in the past. The ravaged villages and dead women.
They never stopped being awful. Their lies poisoned an entire generation against us.
A new future gapes before me like the maw of a venomous beast—one that we voluntarily enter. When I take my first step, it is because of the human woman in my arms.
I move quickly. She is silent when we hurry past the first people we’ve seen in days. I grimace when I see a large bonfire in the corner.
Human bodies are stacked atop each other.
I turn away, shielding her from the shock.
What is this hellish place?
When we finally reach the small thicket of trees where Melisa says that Eneko lives, I slow.
The house itself seems ordinary enough. There are no heads on spikes or bloodstains in the snow. Two small children are playing outside.
As giants, they are nearly as tall as Melisa, though neither could be older than a decade or two.
Melisa’s arms go slack, and one hangs down pathetically. When I glance down at her, I see her eyes close. The need to adjust her is strong, but before I can, one of the giant children catches us.
“They’re humans!” one hisses.
The taller and presumably older of the two steps forward. “Da said you can’t come here after dark. Get out, or we’ll throw rocks!”
Though the warning had just come, one of them throws a stone the size of my foot at me. It connects with my leg, and a burst of pain radiates up to my hip.
I curse in Enduar under my breath and step forward.
When I do, one of the children screams.
“Ma!”
When the elder one sees Melisa limp in my arms, he grabs his brother. “Shut up. It’s Da’s human.”
Something hot and angry stirs in my chest, but I keep it clamped down.
The front door to the cabin flings open, and warm yellow light spills into the night. A giant woman with rich, brown hair stands in the doorway.