The Path of Giants by B.T. Narro (best novels to read .txt) 📕

a bit of a risk. “I’ve never seen you use your full power. It was something to behold.”

He stared at her. She could tell her flattery hadn’t worked.

He started to pace. “Here’s the problem I have with you, Eden.” Then he looked at her again, pointedly. “You’re a coward. Don’t deny it.”

She wouldn’t.

“Cowards change their minds,” he continued.

“I’m with you,” she said convincingly.

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to win this, and I want to be on the winning side.”

“Even if you despise me.”

Fear threatened to close Eden’s throat. She could take a risk and try to lie, but she thought that might result in him abandoning her here. The shortest way out of Curdith Forest from the center was fifty miles straight north, but that would still leave her more than a hundred miles away from Koluk, the nearest city. If she walked straight to Koluk from here, she’d be walking through the forest for weeks on end. She wasn’t sure she could survive that. The small Induct stone in her sock might not be enough to keep her safe.

“Yes, even if I despise you. Like you said, I’m too much of a coward to go against you.”

His eyebrows lowered over a harsh gaze. He seemed to notice something over Eden’s shoulder. She turned around.

The great treelike beast she had seen earlier was walking toward them. Valinox bent down and roughly pulled Eden’s sock away from her leg, revealing the Induct stone she had turned into an essence of dteria and stored there.

“What are you doing?” she asked in a panic.

“I can feel this on you.” He took out the black stone.

“Please don’t leave me here,” she said. “Especially without one. Nijja destroyed the other.”

“That’s your fault.” He wrapped dteria around his body as if he would soon take off.

“Wait. You had to have known that Gourfist would wake up when I opened the portal. I had nowhere to run but into Fyrren.”

“You could’ve waited for me on the other side.”

“I tried, but I was attacked by snakes and all sorts of other things! I was bitten and would’ve died, but one of the fae brought me to where you found me.”

“You should’ve defended yourself better.”

“Wait! I’m sure I can still be useful to you.”

“I already have more than enough support to win this. I don’t need your help anymore.”

“You can’t just leave me here. I’ll die!”

The treelike beast picked up speed as it lumbered toward them aggressively.

“I’ll tell you what,” Valinox said. “I will give you one more chance…but only if you make it to Koluk. The city will be mine by the time you get there. If you make it there, then you’ll prove that you’re stronger than I think you are.”

“At least leave me the stone. You don’t need it.”

“That’s right. I don’t.”

He turned invisible. Then Eden heard him take off.

She shrieked as the treelike beast dashed at her.

Eden ran away as fast as she could. She didn’t know which direction she was going, just not toward the crater where there were few trees she could use for cover. Fortunately, the treelike beast didn’t have the best coordination and soon tripped over himself and fell.

“Gaaaruuuu!” he hollered as Eden ran and ran until she was finally out of sight.

She searched around frantically for another Induct stone as something howled nearby. Then a beastly roar followed from another direction.

She searched for some time before she finally found a stone, this one of medium size. It was just small enough for her to be able to close her fingers around it. She primed it with a spell of ordia, then began to push dteria into the stone as she looked around, hearing another roar, this one behind her. It was going to take the better part of an hour before she finished turning it into a powerful enough essence.

She darted off in the opposite direction as the sounds she heard, clutching the stone to her stomach as she continued to cast into it.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I noticed Kataleya looking at me many times during the ride to Koluk. It seemed as if there was something she wanted to tell me, and I had a feeling from her longing expression that I knew what it was. I didn’t want to hear it.

Her blonde hair was lush, framing her beautiful face. She had bright eyes that ranged between green and gray, depending on the light. I didn’t know what it was about her face exactly, but she always looked as if she had something intelligent to say, something she had thought through thoroughly. There was a sharpness to her features that drew my gaze.

If I let myself, I could become attracted to her all over again. I could let the feeling make me ill with need, make me question everything I was doing that didn’t lead to capturing her heart. But I had gotten past all that when she had denied me. It had been more than difficult. I didn’t want to have to go through that again.

There were other gazes besides Kataleya’s that I soon noticed as well. Hadley was already getting more comfortable on horseback, her expression far less nervous. I was sure that had to do with how her horse seemed to know to follow the pack, and our speed wasn’t nearly as fast as Kataleya had wanted to ride the last time we were attempting to travel together. Hadley seemed to be devoting much of her attention to me, but she was more difficult to read than Kataleya.

Hadley shied away from me whenever I returned her gaze. The way her mouth was pursed made it seem like she didn’t really want to tell me anything, like she was just curious.

She had very different features than Kataleya’s, with stark black hair, dark eyebrows and long eyelashes to match. She had a much more innocent appearance, and it wasn’t just because she was my age, two years younger than Kataleya.

I didn’t know if it was because of the things I felt